Characteristics of the mitochondrial genome of Qinling zokor (Eospalax rufescens)

Abstract

We report the complete mitochondrial genome for the Eospalax rufescens, a typical subterranean rodent species and endemic in China. The resulting E. rufescens mitogenome is 16,355 bases in size, containing 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, and 1 noncoding control region (D-loop). The base compositions present highly biased toward A + T nucleotides. Moreover, twelve of all 13 PCGs initiated with ATN start codon, whereas ND1 began with GTG start codon. Stop codons in 13 PCGs were all typical types except incomplete stop codon T for ND4. We further provide a Maximum Likelihood phylogenetic tree showing relationships among E. rufescens and other common subterranean rodents in family Spalacidae.

Keywords:

• Qinling zokor
• Eospalax rufescens
• mitochondrial genome
• next generation sequencing

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) at https://trace.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Traces/sra/sra.cgi?view=search_obj, reference number SRR11637900.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Applied Basic Research Program of Qinghai Science 2019-ZJ-7069.