Mitochondrial genome organization of the Ochre-bellied Flycatcher, Mionectes oleagineus

Abstract

We sequenced and compared the mitogenome organization of two specimens of suboscine tyrant flycatcher Mionectes oleagineus from western and eastern Panama, representing distinct mtDNA clades. These samples show identical gene arrangement and vary in size by less than 5 base pairs. Both depict a non-standard avian gene order with an extra non-coding region (e.g. the remnant CR₂), which differs in one base pair between them. Small size differences are also found on the control region and the 16S rRNA. Average uncorrected pairwise divergence among protein-coding genes (PCGs) was 2.8, ranging from 1.9% for COXIII and ND6 to 3.2% for ND2 and ATP6, respectively. These mitogenomes may be useful for understanding the evolutionary dynamics of gene order in bird mitochondrial genomes.

• Control region
• gene order
• mitogenome
• suboscine
• Tyrannidae

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article. This work was funded by the Smithsonian Institution and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Office of Fellowships. We thank Panama’s Environmental Ministry (ANAM) for continued support of scientific collecting without which this study would not be possible.