Complete mitochondrial genomes of Gnathostoma nipponicum and Gnathostoma sp., and their comparison with other Gnathostoma species

Abstract Gnathostomiasis is a foodborne zoonotic parasitosis caused by Gnathostoma nematodes. It has caused significant public problems worldwide, but its molecular biology is limited. The purpose of this study was to decode the complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes of Gnathostoma nipponicum and Gnathostoma sp., and compare their mt sequences with other Gnathostoma species. The complete mt genome sequences were amplified by long-range PCR and determined by subsequent primer walking. The complete mt genomes of G. nipponicum and Gnathostoma sp. were 14,093 bp and 14,391 bp, respectively. Both of the two mt genomes contain 12 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA genes and 22 transfer RNA genes. The gene order and transcription direction are the same as G. spinigerum and G. doloresi . The sequence difference across the entire mt genomes varied from 14.4% to 18.2% between G. nipponicum , Gnathostoma sp., G. spinigerum and G. doloresi of Japan and China isolates. Phylogenetic analyses by Bayesian inference (BI) using concatenated amino acid sequences of 12 PCGs showed that G. nipponicum and Gnathostoma sp. are two distinctive species of Gnathostoma , and G. nipponicum are more closely related to Gnathostoma sp. than to G. spinigerum . The mtDNA datasets provide abundant resources of novel markers, which can be used for the studies of molecular epidemiology and diagnosis of Gnathostoma spp.