Characterization of six new complete mitochondrial genomes of Chiasmodontidae (Scombriformes, Percomorpha) and considerations about the phylogenetic relationships of the family

Abstract

The fishes of the Chiasmodontidae family, known as swallower fishes, are species adapted to live in deep seas. Several studies have shown the proximity of this family to Tetragonuridae and Amarsipidae. However, the phylogenetic position of this clade related to other Pelagiaria groups remains uncertain even when phylogenomic studies are employed. Since the low number of published mitogenomes, our study aimed to assemble six new mitochondrial genomes of Chiasmodontidae from database libraries to expand the discussion regarding the phylogeny of this group within Scombriformes. As expected, the composition and organization of mitogenomes were stable among the analyzed species, although we detected repetitive sequences in the D-loop of species of the genus Kali not seen in Chiasmodon, Dysalotus, and Pseudoscopelus. Our phylogeny incorporating 51 mitogenomes from several families of Scombriformes, including nine chiasmodontids, recovered interfamilial relationships well established in previous studies, including a clade containing Chiasmodontidae, Amarsipidae, and Tetragonuridae. However, phylogenetic relationships between larger clades remain unclear, with disagreements between different phylogenomic studies. We argue that such inconsistencies are not only due to biases and limitations in the data but mainly to complex biological events in the adaptive irradiation of Scombriformes after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.

Keywords: Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event; Pelagiaria; mitogenome; phylogeny; swallowers fishes.

Fig. 1.

Comparative mitogenomics analysis of all the nine chiasmodontid fishes against a reference (Chiasmodon niger), generated by BLAST Ring Image Generator (BRIG). Gaps in rings correspond to regions with <50% identity to the reference sequence (BLAST comparison).

Fig. 2.

The phylogenetic tree of Chiasmodontidae mitogenomes and other 43 species available in GenBank. The bootstrap values were indicated in each branch of the tree. Aeoliscus strigatus was selected as an outgroup.