The complete mitochondrial genome of Paragonimus ohirai (Paragonimidae: Trematoda: Platyhelminthes) and its comparison with P. westermani congeners and other trematodes

We present the complete mitochondrial genome of Miyazaki, 1939 and compare its features with those of previously reported mitochondrial genomes of the pathogenic lung-fluke, , and other members of the genus. The circular mitochondrial DNA molecule of the single fully sequenced individual of was 14,818 bp in length, containing 12 protein-coding, two ribosomal RNA and 22 transfer RNA genes. As is common among trematodes, an gene was absent from the mitogenome of and the 5' end of overlapped with the 3' end of by 40 bp and four forms/strains of from South Korea and India, exhibited remarkably different base compositions and hence codon usage in protein-coding genes. In the fully sequenced individual, the non-coding region started with two long identical repeats (292 bp each), separated by . These were followed by an array of six short tandem repeats (STR), 117 bp each. Numbers of the short tandem repeats varied among individuals. A phylogenetic tree inferred from concatenated mitochondrial protein sequences of 50 strains encompassing 42 species of trematodes belonging to 14 families identified a monophyletic Paragonimidae in the class Trematoda. Characterization of additional mitogenomes in the genus will be useful for biomedical studies and development of molecular tools and mitochondrial markers for diagnostic, identification, hybridization and phylogenetic/epidemiological/evolutionary studies.