The complete mitochondrial genome of the photosymbiotic sea slug Berghia stephanieae (Valdés, 2005) (Gastropoda, Nudibranchia)

Jenny Melo Clavijo; Franziska Drews; Marcello Pirritano; Martin Simon; Abdulrahman Salhab; Alexander Donath; Silja Frankenbach; João Serôdio; Sabrina Bleidißel; Angelika Preisfeld; Gregor Christa

doi:10.1080/23802359.2021.1914211

The complete mitochondrial genome of the photosymbiotic sea slug Berghia stephanieae (Valdés, 2005) (Gastropoda, Nudibranchia)

Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2021 Jul 12;6(8):2281-2284. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2021.1914211. eCollection 2021.

Affiliations

¹ Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Fakultät für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Zoologie und Biologiedidaktik, Wuppertal, Germany.
² Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Fakultät für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Chemie und Biologie, Molekulare Zellbiologie und Mikrobiologie, Wuppertal, Germany.
³ Department of Genetics, Saarland University, Saarbrucken, Germany.
⁴ Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany.
⁵ Department of Biology and CESAM, Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal.

Abstract

Berghia stephanieae (Nudibranchia, Cladobranchia) is a photosymbiotic sea slug that feeds exclusively on sea anemones from the genus Exaiptasia. It then specifically incorporates dinoflagellates belonging to the Symbiodiniaceae obtained from their prey. Here, we present the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of B. stephanieae combining Oxford Nanopore long read and Illumina short-read sequencing data. The mitochondrial genome has a total length of 14,786 bp, it contains the 13 protein-encoding genes, 23 tRNAs, and two rRNAs and is similar to other nudibranchs except for the presence of a duplicated tRNA-Ser 1.

Keywords: Aeolidiidae; Mollusca; Nudibranchia; Nudipleura; Photosymbiosis.

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.12994064

Grants and funding

For financial support, thanks are due to Central research funding budget at the University of Wuppertal (ZEFFT) through national funds and to FCT/MCTES and their support to CESAM [UIDP/50017/2020 + UIDB/50017/2020] through national funds. This work was supported by the project EvoSym [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028751] funded by FEDER, through COMPETE2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI), and by national funds (OE), through FCT/MCTES.