Whole mitogenome analysis and phylogeny of freshwater fish red-finned catopra () endemic to Kerala, India.

The freshwater leaf fish belongs to the family Pristolepididae, restricted to Pamba and Chalakudy rivers of Kerala, India. In the present study, we sequenced the complete mitogenome of and analysed its phylogeny in the order Anabantiformes. The 16622-bp long genome comprised of 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs) genes and had a noncoding control region. All the protein-coding genes, tRNA and rRNA were located on the heavy strand, except nad6 and eight tRNAs (glutamine, alanine, asparagine, cysteine, tyrosine, serine, glutamic acid and proline) transcribed from L strand. The genome exhibited an overlapping between atp8 and atp6 (2 bp), nad4 and nad4l (2 bp), tRNA and tRNA. (1 bp), tRNA and tRNA (1 bp). Around 157 bp, an intergenic spacer was identified. The overall GC-skews and AT-skews of the H-strand mitogenome were -0.35 and 0.079, respectively, revealing that the H-strand consisted of equal amounts of A and T and that the overall nucleotide composition was C skewed. All tRNA genes exhibited cloverleaf secondary structures, while the secondary structure of tRNA lacked a discernible dihydrouridine stem. The phylogenetic analysis of available mitogenomes of Anabantiformes revealed a sister group relationship between Pristolepididae and Channidae. The whole mitogenome of will form a molecular resource for further taxonomic and conservation studies on this endemic freshwater fish.