Objective: To sequence and analyze the complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome of Oncomelania hupensis.
Methods: Four long fragments were amplified by long PCR using the primers designed based on mtDNA-CO I, Cytb, 16S rRNA and CO III gene sequences, and sequenced by conserved primer-walking.
Results: The mitochondrial genome (GenBank accession no. FJ997214) was a circular molecule of 15 182 bp with a total A+T content of 67.32%, and contained 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and an A+T-rich region of 72 bp. All 13 protein-coding genes of the O. hupensis mtDNA used ATG as start codon. Canonical TAA and TAG termination codons were found in 12 protein-coding genes, and the remaining one (ND1) had an incomplete termination codon (T). Two short gene overlaps were found with a length of 4 bp and 7 bp, respectively. The length of 21 total intergenic region of mtDNA was 145bp ranging from 1-30 bp. A total of 22 transferring RNA were found, all of which were typical cloverleaf structure except for two tRNA(Ser), one tRNA(Gln) and one tRNA(Ile).
Conclusion: The complete sequence of O. hupensis mitochondrial genome has been determined.