Complete mitochondrial genome of the American flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber (Phoenicopteriformes, Phoenicopteridae)

Abstract

The American flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber (P. ruber), is a large species of flamingo closely related to the greater flamingo and Chilean flamingo. In this paper, the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of P. ruber has been assembled for the first time. It was 17 476 bp in length and consisted of 13 typical vertebrate protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes and 2 control regions. COI and ND3 genes used GTG and ATC as start codons respectively, but the remaining protein-coding genes were encoded beginning with orthodox ATG codon. Two triplet codons (TAA, AGG) and one single T base were employed as stop codons. The arrangement of the overall genes and noncoding regions was identical to the same genus flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus. The AT content (54.27%) was higher than the GC content. Phylogenetic analysis was performed using 12 protein-coding genes, combined with other 11 species from the same Neognathae, which validated the responsibility and utility of this new mitochondrial genome.

• American flamingo
• flamingo
• Phoenicopterus ruber
• mitogenome

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank BGI for generating the next generation sequencing data of the American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) used in this work. The authors also thank anonymous classmates for their help.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.