Accelerated mitochondrial genome evolution in parasitic barnacles driven by adaptive and non-adaptive responses

Parasitic lifestyles often impose profound evolutionary pressures, affecting molecular evolution through both adaptive and non-adaptive mechanisms. Among barnacles (subclass Cirripedia), the obligate parasitic Rhizocephala differ markedly from their filter-feeding thoracican relatives in morphology, ecology, and life history. However, how the shift to parasitism has shaped mitochondrial genome evolution within Cirripedia remains unclear. Here, we present the first comprehensive comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes between parasitic and non-parasitic barnacles, including three newly sequenced and one previously unpublished species of parasitic Rhizocephala, a clade whose mitochondrial genomes had not been characterized until now. Phylogenomic and molecular evolutionary analyses reveal that Rhizocephala species exhibit extremely long branches, likely attributed to the clade-specific tempo (high substitution rate) and mode (selection pressure) of mtDNA sequence evolution associate..., , # Accelerated mitochondrial genome evolution in parasitic barnacles driven by adaptive and non-adaptive responses

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.tx95x6b9w](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tx95x6b9w)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data and script files used for the analyses in the manuscript \"Accelerated Mitochondrial Genome Evolution in Parasitic Barnacles Driven by Adaptive and Non-Adaptive Responses.\"

### Files and variables

#### File: 18S_Gblocks.fas

**Description:** Input file containing aligned 18S rDNA sequences used for phylogenetic reconstruction

#### File: 18S_Gblocks.nj

**Description:** Input neighbor-joining (NJ) tree file for the two-cluster test using 18S rDNA sequences in LINTRE

#### File: 18S_Gblocks.phy

**Description:** Input sequence file for the two-cluster test using 18S rDNA sequences in LINTRE

#### File: atp6.fasta

**Description:** Input sequence files for each of the 13 mitochondrial protein-coding genes (PCGs) and their concatenated alignment...,