Characterization and phylogenetic analysis of the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Auricularia villosula , an edible wild mushroom in China

Auricularia is a genus of edible jelly fungi whose highly plastic fruiting bodies lack differentiation between stalks and caps, making accurate identification of similar species difficult. Auricularia villosula ( A. villosula ) is a wild edible mushroom that is also used in traditional Chinese medicine. Here, we sequenced and assembled its mitochondrial genome using Illumina short reads. The complete sequence is 230,069 bp in length with a GC content of 30.1%. It harbors 41 genes (25 tRNA, 2 rRNA, and 14 protein-coding): 2 on the N strand ( −) and 29 on the J strand ( +). Analysis of nucleotide composition revealed positive GC (0.027) and AT (0.002) skews. The mitochondrial genome included a very large intergenic region (22,840 bp) between cytochrome b ( CytB ) and tRNA Tyr , lacked overlapping nucleotides between genes, and used non-standard start codons for some genes. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that A . villosula was distant from other species of Polyporales , Agaricales , and Russulales . The A. villosula mitogenome sequence will be useful for future taxonomic and genetic studies.