In this paper, the complete mitochondrial genome of the hybrid of Oreochromis niloticus (♀) × Oreochromis aureus (♂) was determined using PCR-based method. The mitogenome was 16,663 bp in length, containing the same gene order and an identical number of genes or regions with the other Cichlid fishes, including 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and 1 putative control region. The overall composition of the mitogenome was 30.92% C, 27.98% A, 25.54% T, 15.56% G, with a slight AT bias of 53.52% occurs in the hybrid mitogenome. All the protein-coding genes were initiated by typical ATG codon, except for COX1 gene with the initiation codon GTG. Eight genes end with the complete stop codon TAA or TAG, while the COX2, COX3, ND3, ND4 and Cytb genes terminated with an incomplete stop codon T. The complete mitochondrial genome of Oreochromis niloticus (♀) × Oreochromis aureus (♂) may provide important DNA molecular data for further elucidation of evolutionary mechanisms in the hybrid fish of Cichlidae.
Keywords: Cichlidae; Oreochromis aureus; Oreochromis niloticus; hybrid; mitogenome.