Four complete mitochondrial genomes of living wild-type chinese giant salamander Andrias davidianus (Amphibia: Cryptobranchidae)

Abstract

The Chinese giant salamander (CGS), Andrias davidianus (Amphibian, Caudata, Cryptobranchidae), is endemic to China. After overhunting in the 1990’s, it is very difficult to find the CGS in the wild. Due to mating disorder, the captive breeding population is genetically confounded. The genetic backgrounds of all wild-release individuals in China are not explicit. Herein, we reported four living wild-type complete mitochondrial genomes of this species. The gene order and contents are identical to those found in typical vertebrates. Thirteen protein-coding genes (PCGs) of 7 A. davidianus (4 from this study, 3 retrieved from GenBank) and 11 other closely species retrieved from GenBank were used to reconstruct phylogenetic tree. The Maximum likelihood (ML) topology shown that the clade of CGS has two subclades with a high support (100%). This study provides partial fundamental information for further exploring the true genetic background of whole population of A. davidianus.

Keywords:

• Mitogenome
• endangered species
• true genetic background
• phylogenetics

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the study was conducted in the absence of any commercial of financial relationships that could be constructed as potential conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province Education Department (No. KJ2014A244), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31471968), the Key Discipline of Ecology (zdxk201801) and Research Platform of Bioresource Institution (kypt201801), Huangshan University.