Misidentified Mitogenomes of Two Lycodes Species (Perciformes: Zoarcidae) in GenBank

Two published mitogenomes of eelpouts, Lycodes raridens (GenBank accession no. MN604279 and RefSeq accession no. NC_053740) and L. ygreknotatus (GenBank accession no. LC093396), were found in an unexpected phylogenetic position clustering with distant zoarcid species outside the genus Lycodes. An analysis of single-marker sequences has confirmed that the observed phylogenetic inconsistencies result from incorrect species identification. The accession nos. MN604279 and NC_053740 represent actually the mitogenome of Ophthalmolycus amberensis mistaken for L. raridens, and the accession no. LC093396 represents the mitogenome of Zoarces gillii mistaken for L. ygreknotatus. Both misidentified mitogenomes were already reused in phylogenetic analyses and cited in multiple subsequent publications. Consequently, the present study has been undertaken with the purpose to prevent the propagation of wrong biological information that further confuses the phylogeny of the most problematic groups of zoarcid fishes.