The low level of differences between mitogenomes of the Sakhalin sturgeon Acipenser mikadoi Hilgendorf, 1892 and the green sturgeon A. medirostris Ayeres, 1854 (Acipenseridae) indicates their recent divergence
The complete mitochondrial genome of the Sakhalin sturgeon Acipenser mikadoi and two mitogenomes of the Amur sturgeon A. schrenckii were sequenced using the Roche 454 technology. Mitogenomes of the green sturgeon A. medirostris (obtained from GenBank) and the Sakhalin sturgeon differ as much as mitogenomes of two mtDNA haplogroups (SM and BG) found in the same population of Amur sturgeon: 0.0042 ± 0.0006 and 0.0036 ± 0.0005 substitutions per site (Tamura-Nei distance, TrN), respectively. The differences of these mitogenome pairs from mitogenomes of sister species (kaluga A. dauricus and white sturgeon A. transmontanus ) are 3-6 times as large (0.0260 ± 0.0015 and 0.0102 ± 0.0008, respectively). Thus, the differences between mitogenomes of Sakhalin and green sturgeons can be attributed to the variability at the intraspecific level. The time that has passed since the divergence of Sakhalin and green sturgeons is supposed to be much shorter than was previously believed: about 0.16 rather than 9.60 million years. (Biologiya Morya, 2017, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 144-147).