The complete mitochondrial genome of the ‘maze’ coral Meandrina meandrites (Scleractinia: Vacatina: Meandrinidae)

The shallow water reef-building 'maze' or 'brain' stony coral Meandrina meandrites (fam. Meandrinidae) is currently experiencing major environmental problems in the Caribbean Sea. In this study, we assembled the mitochondrial genome of M. meandrites to support future conservation of this imperiled coral. We also explored the phylogenetic position of this coral in the Class Scleractinia utilizing the phylogenetic signal provided by translated mitochondrial protein-coding genes (PCGs). A complete mitochondrial genome of M. meandrites, 17,196 bp in length, was assembled using short-reads next-generation sequencing (NGS) sequencing with the target-restricted-assembly pipeline GetOrganelle. The newly assembled mitochondrial genome of M. meandrites encoded 13 PCGs, two ribosomal genes (ribosomal RNA), and two transfer genes (tRNAs). It also contains two relatively long non-coding regions 400 and 1,877 bp long. A group I intron bisected the nad5 PCG. Each of the two tRNAs exhibited a canonical 'cloverleaf' secondary structure. The mitochondrial genome of M. meandrites is identical to that of a conspecific assembled using HiFi PacBio long reads (available in GenBank with accession number OY855917 but without a companion paper) with the exception of four single nucleotide variants. The aforementioned comparison indicates that the mitochondrial genome assembled from a short-read NGS dataset is reliable (complete and accurate). A maximum-likelihood phylomitogenomic analysis based on PCGs (translated) supported the monophyly of the order Scleractinia and placed M. meandrites in a moderately to well-supported clade with Astrangia sp. (family Astrangidae). This newly assembled mitochondrial genome can be used as a reference to support conservation planning, including biomonitoring of this stony coral using environmental DNA.