Complete mitochondrial genome of the Black-capped Bulbul, Pycnonotus melanicterus (Passeriformes: Pycnonotidae)

Abstract

The first complete maternally-inherited mitochondrial genome of Pycnonotus melanicterus has been sequenced and annotated in this study. The mitogenome is 17,011 bp in size with an A+T content of 55.15%, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, 2 ribosomal RNA (srRNA and lrRNA) genes, and 2 extensive heteroplasmic control regions. Genome organization and gene arrangements of P. melanicterus are similar to those of other bulbuls. All 13 PCGs initiated with ATG as the start codon, while terminated by seven types of stop codons. All tRNA genes sequences have the potential to fold into typical cloverleaf secondary structures. Gene overlapping was observed in the P. melanicterus mitogenome. Moreover, our results of phylogenetic analysis well support the monophyly of Pycnonotidae as previously studies.

• Mitochondrial genome
• Pycnonotus melanicterus
• Pycnonotidae
• phylogeny

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Binghua Li, Weiwei Guo, Zhichun Guo for assistance, suggestions, and comments.

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by the Key Laboratory of Biotic Environment and Ecology Safety in Anhui Province, the Key Program of Natural Science Foundation of the Anhui Higher Education Institutions (No. KJ2013A127), and the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. 1308085MC38). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.