A Report of Complete Nucleotide Sequence of Mitochondrial Genome of Bighead Carp (Aristichthys nobilis)

The complete mitochondrial DNA sequences from three individuals of bighead carp, Aristichthys nobilis were determined. The genome is a circular molecule with 16621 bp in length, and the overall base composition included 31.6% of Adenine (A), 27.1% of cytosine (C), 16.0% of Guanine (G), 25.3%, of thymine (T), and with 56.9% the A+T content. The genome contains the typical 37 vertebrates' mitochondrial genes, including 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and also a putative control region (D-loop). It was confirmed that the gene arrangement of the bighead carp could be used to identify the other Cyprinidae fishes. Meanwhile, 12 out of 13 protein coding genes were observed that was encoded by the heavy strand and only ND6 was encoded by the light strand. The codon usage also followed the typical vertebrate pattern (ATG) except for an unusual GTG start codon for the COI gene.