Morphological and complete mitogenomic characterisation of the acanthocephalan Polymorphus minutus infecting the duck Anas platyrhynchos

Morphological characteristics of the acanthocephalan Polymorphus minutus (Goeze, 1782), which was collected from duck Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus in Czech Republic, are described. The mitochondrial (mt) genome P. sequenced, with a total length 14,149 bp, comprising 36 genes including 12 protein coding (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) and two ribosomal (rrnL rrnS). This is similar to mt genomes other syndermatan species. All these were encoded on same DNA strand orientation. overall nucleotide composition 38.2% T, 27.3% G, 26.2% A, 8.3% C. amino acid sequences PCGs for 28 platyzoans, minutus, used phylogenetic analysis, resulting topology recovers as sister Southwellina hispida (Van Cleave, 1925), taxa form clade Centrorhynchus aluconis (Müller, 1780) Plagiorhynchus transversus (Rudolphi, 1819), all species Palaeacanthocephala, thus supporting monophyly this class.