Complete mitochondrial genome sequences for Crown-of-thorns starfish Acanthaster planci and Acanthaster brevispinus

The complete mtDNA of A. planci and A. brevispinus are 16,234 bp and 16,254 bp in size, respectively. These values fall within the length variation range reported for other metazoan mitochondrial genomes. They contain 13 proteins, 2 rRNA, and 22 tRNA genes and the putative control region in the same order as the asteroid, Asterina pectinifera. The A + T contents of A. planci and A. brevispinus on their L strands that encode the majority of protein-coding genes are 56.3% and 56.4% respectively and are lower than that of A. pectinifera (61.2%). The percent similarity of nucleotide sequences between A. planci and A. brevispinus is found to be highest in the CO2 and CO3 regions (both 90.6%) and lowest in ND2 gene (84.2%) among the 13 protein-coding genes. In the deduced putative amino acid sequences, CO1 is highly conserved (99.2%), and ATP8 apparently evolves faster any of the other protein-coding gene (85.2%).The gene arrangement, base composition, codon usage and tRNA structure of A. planci are similar to those of A. brevispinus. However, there are significant variations between A. planci and A. brevispinus. Complete mtDNA sequences are useful for the study of phylogeny, larval detection and population genetics.The crown-of-thorns starfish, Acanthaster planci (L.), is a typical reef coral predator, which sometimes causes population outbreaks and destroys coral reef communities. The activities of this starfish have been responsible for causing extensive coral mortality in a large number of coral reef systems throughout the Indo-Pacific region [1]. Major outbreaks involve large numbers of starfish and widespread coral destruction and consequently they can change the fauna and topographic nature of coral reef communities [1,2].In Australia, Kenchington [3] hypothesized that outbreaks (termed primary) started and in turn initiated a cascade of additional outbreaks (termed secondary). Similarly, the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) in Australia and the Ryukyu Islands in Japan hav