The complete mitogenome of the inarticulate brachiopod Glottidia pyramidata reveals insights into gene order variation, deviant ATP8 and mtORFans in the Brachiopoda

Brachiopods are a clade of marine organisms with a tremendously diverse and abundant fossil record but with fewer than 500 species extant today. Even if a better understanding of their biology and genetics could help to test hypotheses about their impressive decline, knowledge of genetics and evolutionary genomics in extant brachiopods is very poor. Here, we present the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the inarticulate Glottidia pyramidata, an eastern North American extant representative of the phylum Brachiopoda. Besides the general characteristics of the sequenced mitogenome, we present its unusual features such as deviant ATP8 protein sequence and supernumerary ORFs, and also unique gene order, considering the available genome sequences of other brachiopod species.