Complete mitochondrial genome of the Chinese oriental vole Eothenomys chinensis (Rodentia: Arvicolinae)

Abstract

The Chinese oriental vole (Eothenomys chinensis) belongs to subfamily Arvicolinae, which is endemic to the mountains in southwest China. E. chinensis and other Arvicoline species display a number of features that make them ideal for evolutionary studies of speciation and the role of Quaternary glacial cycles on diversification. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of E. chinensis was sequenced. It was determined to be 16,362 bases. The nucleotide sequence data of 12 heavy-strand protein-coding genes of E. chinensis and other 19 rodents were used for phylogenetic analyses. Trees constructed using three different phylogenetic methods (Bayesian, maximum parsimony, and maximum likelihood) showed a similar topology demonstrating that E. chinensis was clustered in subfamily arvicolinae—formed a solid monophyletic group being sister to the subfamily Cricetinae. And the trees also suggested that E. chinensis is a sister to the genus Microtus and Proedromys.

Keywords::

• Eothenomys chinensis
• complete mitochondrial genome
• phylogeny

Acknowledgements

We thank Rui Liao and Zhiyu Sun at Sichuan Academy of Forestry for providing the tissue sample of E. chinensis. This research was funded by National Science and Technology Support Project of China (2011BAZ03186).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.