Complete mitochondrial genome of the whitetip reef shark Triaenodon obesus (Carcharhiniformes: Carcharhinidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome of the whitetip reef shark Triaenodon obesus is determined in this study. It is 16,700 bp in length, with the typical gene composition, arrangement and transcriptional orientation in vertebrates. The overall base composition is 31.4% A, 25.8% C, 13.2% G and 29.7% T. Two start codons and two stop codons are found in the protein-coding genes. The 22 tRNA genes ranged from 67 to 75 nucleotides. The tRNA-Ser2 lost the DHU arm and could not be folded to the typical cloverleaf secondary structure. The origin of L-strand replication (OL) sequence was identified between tRNA-Asn and tRNA-Cys genes. The high A+T content of control region is due to a lot of poly A and poly T.