Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 26, 2025

A Concoction Pipeline for Generating Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units (MOTUs) Among Riparian and Aquatic Beetles
Published on: July 11, 2025
The first complete mitochondrial genomes for Serranus papilionaceus and Serranus scriba, and their phylogenetic
Adriana Vella1,2, Noel Vella3,4, Carolina Acosta-Díaz4
1Conservation Biology Research Group, Department of Biology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta. adriana.vella@um.edu.mt.
Background:
Butterfly-winged comber, Serranus papilionaceus Valenciennes, 1832, was recently resurrected and so it is no longer considered as a junior synonym of the Painted comber, Serranus scriba (Linneus, 1758). This calls for a more comprehensive phylogenetic assessment using mitochondria DNA genomes to better understand the relationship and delineate these two species.
Methods And Results:
Next-generation Sequencing was applied to sequence the genome of these two Serranus species. The data generated was then used to construct the mitochondrial genome of these two species. This produced the first complete mitochondrial genomes for the genus Serranus here represented by Serranus papilionaceus and Serranus scriba. These two mitochondrial genomes are 16,514 bp and 16,512 bp respectively, and both contained the typical 37 genes found in vertebrates (13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs), together with the OL and the control region.
Conclusions:
These mitochondrial genomes provide a new insight into the phylogenetic and evolutionary connections between the various subfamilies within Serranidae, while providing new molecular data that can be applied to discriminate between the studied species.
Related Concept Videos
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Synteny and Evolution
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral...
Comparing Mitochondrial, Chloroplast, and Prokaryotic Genomes
Phylogeny
Multi-species Conserved Sequences
Although the genome of each species varies greatly from each other, a few sequences are highly conserved. Such conserved...
Convergent Evolution

