Phylogenetic analysis of the Mustela altaica (Carnivora: Mustelidae) based on complete mitochondrial genome

Abstract

The mountain weasel (Mustela altaica) belongs to family Mustelidae, which is the near threatened species in the IUCN Red List. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of M. altaica was sequenced and characterized. The genome is 16,521 bases in length (GenBank accession no. KC815122). The nucleotide sequence data of 12 heavy-strand protein-coding genes of M. altaica and other 20 Mustelidae species were used for phylogenetic analyses. Trees constructed by using Bayesian inference, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood demonstrated that M. altaica was close to Mustela nivalis and they were sister to Mustela putorius and Mustela sibirica.

• Mitochondrial genome
• Mustela altaica
• phylogenetic analyses

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Guo Cai at Sichuan University for collecting the sample. We thank Zhenxin Fan at University of California, Los Angeles for his useful comments and suggestions.