Complete mitochondrial genome of Rhopalaea crassa (Ascidiacea, Aplousobranchia, Diazonidae) and phylogenetic analysis

In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome of Rhopalaea crassa (Herdman Citation1880), a solitary ascidian belonging to the family Diazonidae. The mitochondrial genome of R. crassa is 15,413 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 24 transfer RNA genes, and two ribosomal RNA genes. The mitochondrial gene arrangement of R. crassa differs from those reported from previously sequenced Aplousobranchia mitogenomes. Phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated protein-coding genes consistently recovered R. crassa as the sister species of R. idoneta within Diazonidae, with strong support from both Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference analyses.