Abstract
The complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of the Chinese many-toothed snake, Sibynophis chinensis, was sequenced and found to be 17,163 bp in length. The arrangement of 13 protein-coding genes, tRNAs and rRNAs was identical to that of other common snake mt genomes. The mt protein-coding genes of S. chinensis utilized ATA, ATG, ATA and GTG as initiation codons and AGA, AGG, TAA, TAG and T as termination codons. Among three tRNA clusters (LQM, WANCY and HSL), LQM was found instead of IQM, which is common in other vertebrates. We also identified two control regions that contained several conserved elements known as conserved sequence blocks and termination-associated sequences related to mt replication and transcription.
Declaration of interest
This work was supported by the research grant of the Jeju National University in 2012 and grant No. RTI04-02-07 from the Regional Technology Innovation Program of the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE), Republic of Korea. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.