The High-throughput sequencing of Sillago japonica mitochondrial genome reveals the phylogenetic position within the genus Sillago

The complete mitogenome of Sillago japonica was determined through high-throughput DNA sequencing technology. The circular mtDNA molecule was 16 645 bp in size and encoded 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNAs, 22 tRNAs and 2 non-coding regions, with the gene arrangement and content identical to other typical vertebrate mitogenomes. The identity analysis revealed that the mitogenome sequence of S. japonica shared a relatively high sequence identity to S. asiatica (81.5%) compared with S. aeolus (77.5%), S. indica (77.1%), and S. sihama (76.3%). The neighbor-joining tree of complete mitogenome sequence showed that S. japonica firstly clustered together with S. asiatica, then grouped with S. indica and S. sihama, and finally gathered with S. aeolus. Taken together, the results absolutely supported the evolutionary position of S. japonica and provided new insights into phylogenetic relationships of Sillago.