Complete mitochondrial genome of the largest living fish: whale shark Rhincodon typus (Orectolobiformes: Rhincodontidae).

The whale shark Rhincodon typus (Pisces: Chondrichthyes, Orectolobiformes, Rhincodontidae) is the largest living fish on Earth. In this study, we presented its complete mitogenome. It is 16,928 bp in length, contains 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and one control region with the typical gene order and transcriptional direction in the vertebrates. Overall base composition of the R. typus mitogenome is 33.5% A, 24.3% C, 12.8% G and 29.5% T. Two start codon (GTG and ATG) and two stop codon patterns (TAG and TAA/T) were found in protein-coding genes. The tRNA-Ser2 could not be folded into the typical cloverleaf secondary structure because of the replacement of its dihydrouridine arm by a simple loop. A termination associated sequences (TAS) and three conserved sequence blocks (CSB1-3) were identified in the control region.