The complete mitochondrial genome of Tanacetipathes thamnea Warner, 1981 (Antipatharia: Myriopathidae)

Specimens of the black coral Tanacetipathes thamnea were collected from the Northwestern Gulf of Mexico. The complete mitochondrial genome of one of these specimens was obtained from genomic DNA by next-generation sequencing technology on the Illumina HiSeq 2500. Only three species of black corals have a completely sequenced mitochondrial genome. These were used to reconstruct the phylogeny for the order Antipatharia. The mitochondrial genome of T. thamnea is 17,712 base pairs and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, and 2 transfer RNAs in the following order: 16s RNA, COX3, COX1 (with intron), ND4L, COX2, ND4, ND6, ATP8, ATP6, and ND5 (with intron and copies of ND1 and ND3), tRNA-Trp, ND2, 12s RNA, CYTB, tRNA-Met. The gene arrangement is the same as that for Myriopathes japonica with a nearly identical sequence (99.35% identical). These results show that the mitochondrial genome within the family Myriopathidae is highly conserved.