Comparative analysis of the complete mitochondrial genomes of three geographical topmouth culter (<i>Culter alburnus</i>) groups and implications for their phylogenetics

Topmouth culter (<i>C. alburnus</i>) is an important commercial fish in China. We compared the nucleotide variations in the mtDNA genomes among three geographical groups of <i>Culter alburnus</i>: Liangzi Lake, Hubei Province (referred to as LZH); Taihu Lake, Jiangsu Province (TH); and Poyang Lake, Jiangxi Province (PYH). The similarity of whole mtDNA genomes ranged from 0.992 to 0.999. The similarity among 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, and the D-loop sequences was found to range from 0.982 to 0.996. This is useful data for future designing work for making specific molecular marker for distinguishing individuals of <i>C. alburnus</i> from the three geographical groups. An extended termination-associated sequence (ETAS) and several conserved blocks (CSB-F, CSB-E, CSB-D, CSB1, CSB2, and CSB3) were identified in the mtDNA control regions. A phylogenetic analysis shows a monophyletic relationship of the LZF-female and the LZF-male. However, the analysis also showed paraphyletic relationships for the other two geological groups. This result will be useful for the future breeding work of <i>C. alburnus.</i> Circular representation of the complete mitochondrial genomes of <i>C. alburnus.</i>