Complete Mitochondrial Genome of the Steppe Ribbon Racer (Psammophis lineolatus): The First Representative from the Snake Family Psammophiidae and its Phylogenetic Implications

Comparisons of vertebrate mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) may yield significant insights into the evolution of organisms and genomes. However, no complete mitogenome from the snake family Psammophiidae has been reported. In this study, we sequenced and annotated the complete mitogenome of Psammo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian Herpetological Research 2021-01, Vol.12 (3), p.295-307G
Main Authors: Chen, Minli, Liu, Jinlong, Li, Jun, Wu, Na, Guo, Xianguang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bayesian analysis
Codons
Evolution
Gene order
Genes
Genomes
Mitochondria
Mitochondrial DNA
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Psammophiidae
Psammophis lineolatus
rRNA 12S
rRNA 16S
Snakes
Stop codon
Thermal cycling
Transfer RNA
tRNA Pro
Vertebrates
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Summary:Comparisons of vertebrate mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes) may yield significant insights into the evolution of organisms and genomes. However, no complete mitogenome from the snake family Psammophiidae has been reported. In this study, we sequenced and annotated the complete mitogenome of Psammophis lineolatus, representing the first mitogenome of Psammophiidae. The total length is 17 166 bp, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNAs (tRNAs), two ribosomal RNAs (12S rRNA and 16S rRNA), and duplicate control regions (CRs). This gene arrangement belongs to the Type III pattern, which is a widely shared gene order in Alethinophidian snakes. All tRNAs exhibit cloverleaf structures with the exception of tRNA-SerAGY and tRNA-Pro, which lack a dihydrouridine (DHU) arm/stem and TYC loop, respectively. The 13 PCGs include five start codons (ATG, GTG, ATA, ATT, and ATC), two complete stop codons (TAA and AGG), and two incomplete stop codon (T-- and TA-). In addition, the Ka/Ks ratios indicate that all PCGs had undergone a strong purifying selection. Four types of CR domains rearrangement occurred among eight species of Elapoidea. The phylogenetic reconstructions with both Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods support the placement of Psammophiidae in the Elapoidea superfamily, with Homalopsidae being the sister taxon to Elapoidea and Colubroidea. However, the sister taxon of Psammophiidae is unclear due to the availability of Elapoidea mitogenomes being limited to the family Elapidae. More mitogenomes from different taxonomic groups in Elapoidea are needed to better understand the phylogenetic relationships within Elapoidea.
ISSN:2095-0357
DOI:10.16373/j.cnki.ahr.200129