Abstract
Ferret-badger (Melogale moschata) is a widely distributed and rarely studied species. Therefore, we sequenced its complete mitochondrial genome, which is circular in shape with 16,511 bp length and have a structure typical to mammals. There is 98.67% similarity when compared with the reported sequence (HM106328). It contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and 1 control regions (D-loop). This study can provide novel molecular information and genetic diversity of ferret-badger.
Chinese ferret-badger (Melogale moschata), one of the species that maintains ecological balance, is nocturnal and burrowing. It has five subspecies (Wang and Xie Citation2004; Rozhnov et al. Citation2019), in which M.m. moschata, M.m. subaurantiaca, and M.m. ferreogrisea are mainly distributed in the valleys, hills and grasses of east, south, central south and southwest of China. Recently, the decline in population has been caused by the hunting of ferret-badger for food and fur (Storz and Wozencraft Citation1999; Lau et al. Citation2010). Consequently, it is listed as an Endangered species (IUCN Citation2016). The ferret-badger has traditionally been classified as Mustelinae, but some scholars have disputed and proposed that it is classified as new Monotypic Helictidinae (Aristov and Baryshnikov Citation2001; Sato et al. Citation2004). So, the ferret-badger is being studied to provide more useful molecular diversity information and taxonomic status research.
Here, the ferret-badger muscle samples which was killed by illegal poaching were taken from Yáan (N 28°51′, E 101°56′), Sichuan, China. Then, it was stored in the museum of Sichuan Agricultural University (Accession: 000752). The total genomic DNA was extracted by phenol and chloroform, 17 pairs of primers were designed based on the reference sequence (HM106328) downloaded from Genbank. The mitochondrial genome of the ferret-badger was successfully amplified and sequenced.
The complete mitochondrial genome of ferret-badger is 16,587 bp (MN400429). The base composition of ferret-badger is A: 31.90%, T: 26.61%, C: 26.72%, G: 14.77%, it shows obvious bias of A\T. They are 483 mutations, 14 deletions, and 98.67% similarity when compared with the reported sequence. It contains 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), and 1 control region (D-loop), which was similar to most vertebrates (Roos Citation2018; Wu et al. Citation2018). Except for the 8 tRNAs on the L-chains, others are encoded on the H-chain. Most of the PCGs had ATG as the start codon, and few had ATC, ATA, and TTA. Regarding termination codon, six PCGs (COI, COII, ATP8, ATP6, ND4L, ND5) used TAA, ND3, ND6 and cytochrome b used TAG, CAT and AGA, respectively, while the other four genes (ND1, ND2, COIII, ND4) ended with T—. These incomplete stop codons can be accomplished by post-transcriptional polyadenylation (Kong et al. Citation2015).
To further explore its taxonomic status and phylogenetic analysis, a maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree that included complete mitochondrial genome of 12 species from Mustelinae and an outgroup (Ailurus fulgens) was constructed in MEGA10.0 () (Kumar et al. Citation2018). In the ML phylogenetic tree, 10 species of Mustelinae were categorized into one large clade, Meles melesa and Arctomyx collaris were classified for another clade, which supported the taxonomic status of our samples. The research is expected to contribute to molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis of ferret-badger.
Figure 1. Maximum-likelihood tree of Chinese ferret-badger (Melogale moschata) with other 12 sequences from Mustelinae species and 1 outgruop (Ailurus fulgens). Numbers on nodes refer to bootstrap values and GenBank accession numbers are listed below species.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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References
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