Open AccessThe Mitochondrial Genome of the Venomous Cone Snail Conus consors
Author(s) -
Age Brauer,
Alexander Kurz,
Tim Stockwell,
Holly Baden-Tillson,
Juliana Heidler,
Ilka Wittig,
Silke Kauferstein,
Dietrich Mebs,
Reto Stöcklin,
Maido Remm
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0051528
Subject(s) - conus , biology , mitochondrial dna , snail , genetics , evolutionary biology , gene , anatomy , ecology
Cone snails are venomous predatory marine neogastropods that belong to the species-rich superfamily of the Conoidea . So far, the mitochondrial genomes of two cone snail species ( Conus textile and Conus borgesi ) have been described, and these feed on snails and worms, respectively. Here, we report the mitochondrial genome sequence of the fish-hunting cone snail Conus consors and describe a novel putative control region (CR) which seems to be absent in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of other cone snail species. This possible CR spans about 700 base pairs (bp) and is located between the genes encoding the transfer RNA for phenylalanine (tRNA-Phe, trnF ) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit III ( cox3 ). The novel putative CR contains several sequence motifs that suggest a role in mitochondrial replication and transcription.