Complete mitochondrial genome of Hynobius dunni (Amphibia, Caudata, Hynobiidae) and its phylogenetic position

Abstract

Hynobius dunni is a salamander species of the genus Hynobius endemically distributed in eastern Kyushu in southwestern Japan. In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome sequence and clarified the phylogenetic position of this species. The mitochondrial genome was 16,47 bp in length and encoded 13 protein, 2 ribosomal RNA, and 22 transfer RNA genes. Phylogenetic tree based on 13 protein-coding genes revealed that H. nebulosus were the most closely related species within the Hynobius species. The data identified in this study will be useful for population and conservation genetic studies of Hynobius species.

Keywords: Caudata; Mitochondrial genome; amphibian; high-throughput sequencing.

Figure 1.

Bayesian inference tree of the genus Hynobius based on 13 protein-coding genes of H. dunni and the other 18 Hynobius species and a Salamandra tridactyla. The tree was reconstructed using MrBayes 3.2.7a (Ronquist and Huelsenbeck 2003) with GTR + I + G model selected under Akaike information criterion using Kakusan4 (Tanabe 2007). Analyses were run for three million generations, and trees were sampled every 1000 generations. Convergence among runs was verified by examining the likelihood plots using Tracer 1.7 (Rambaut et al. 2018). The first 25% of trees were discarded as burn-in and the remaining trees were summarized with posterior probabilities at the nodes.