Complete mitochondrial genome of Lycodon flavozonatum and implications for Colubridae taxonomy

Abstract

Lycodon flavozonatum, a species of Colubcridae family, is mainly inhabited in hilly region of forest in South China, India, Myanmar, and Vietnam. In this study, the complete mtDNA of L. flavozonatum is 17 172 bp long, which contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA (12S and 16S rRNA), and two control regions and a stem-loop region. Most of these genes are encoded in the H-strand; only ND6, stem-loop and other nine tRNA genes are on the L-strand. The phylogenetic tree among the 14 Serpentiformes species was divided into three major clade; Lycodon makes up the first clade, which showed a sister relationship to the second clade, Elaphe; Hypsiglena forms the third clade and is sister to Lycodon and Elaphe. And the species of L. flavozonatum which we studied belongs to the first clade.

• Genome
• Lycodon flavozonatum
• phylogenetic tree

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Hui Wang, Ling Ding, Wenliang, Zhou, Tao Song, Zhaojie Peng, Zhonglou Sun, Yanan Zhang, Xing Kang, and Xiaonan Sun for their kindly help in this study.

Declaration of interest

The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors are solely responsible for the content of this article. This project was supported by the Foundation for Graduate Student Academic Innovation Research Project of Anhui University (yqh100137).