Abstract
The complete mitochondrial genome was determined from a variegated racerunner, Eremias vermiculata, which was collected from north of Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China. The mitogenome sequence was 19,494 bp in size, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes, and a control region (D-loop), which is similar to the typical mtDNA of vertebrates. All the protein-coding genes in E. vermiculata were distributed on the H-strand, except the ND6 gene and eight tRNA genes, which were encoded on the L-strand. The mitogenome sequence herein will provide fundamental data for further investigating the phylogeographical pattern of E. vermiculata, along with testing the barrier effect of the Tianshan Mountains to gene flow. A preliminary phylogenetic inference has been implemented with five racerunner species and several other related lacertid species.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Dajiang Li for collecting the specimen and tissue sample.
Declaration of interest
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31272281), and Projects of the Bureau of International Co-operation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.
Nucleotide sequence accession number
The complete genome sequence of E. vermiculata has been assigned GenBank accession number KP981389.