Evolution of mitochondrial gene arrangements in Arcidae (Bivalvia: Arcida) and their phylogenetic implications

Arcidae is a diverse group of ark shells with over 260 described species. The phylogenetic relationships and the evolution of the mitochondrial genomes in this family were poorly understood. Comparisons of mitogenomes have been widely used to explore the phylogenetic relationship among animal taxa. We described the complete mitogenomes of Arca navicularis, Scapharca gubernaculum and one nearly complete mitogenome of Anadara consociata. The mitogenome of A. navicularis (18,103 bp) is currently the smallest known Arcidae mitogenome, while the mitogenomes of S. gubernaculum (45,697 bp) and A. consociata (44,034 bp) are relatively large. The mitochondrial gene orders of the three taxa were substantially different from each other, as well as the patterns found in other ark shells. The relationships among Arcidae species recovered from different mitochondrial characters (nucleotide sequence versus gene order) were in disagreement. The phylogeny based on nucleotide sequences did not support the monophyly of Arcidae, as Cucullaea labiata (Cucullaeidae) appeared as a subgroup within Arcinae, rather than sister group to the family Arcidae. In addition, we presented the first time-calibrated evolutionary tree of Arcidae based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences, which placed the deepest divergence within Arcidae at 342.36 million years ago (Mya), around the Carboniferous (360-300 Mya).