A comparison of gene organisations and phylogenetic relationships of all 22 squamate species listed in South Korea using complete mitochondrial DNA

By

Park, Daesik
Kim, Il-Hun
Park, Il-Kook
Grajal-Puche, Alejandro
Park, Jaejin

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2022

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1129

Pages

21--35

Subjects

Full mitochondrial genome , Korea , Phylogeny , rearrangement , Squamata , tRNA-Pro , WANCY

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1129.82981

 

Abstract

Studies using complete mitochondrial genome data have the potential to increase our understanding on gene organisations and evolutionary species relationships. In this study, we compared complete mitochondrial genomes between all 22 squamate species listed in South Korea. In addition, we constructed Maximum Parsimony (MP), Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI) phylogenetic trees using 13 mitochondrial protein-coding genes. The mitochondrial genes for all six species in the suborder Sauria followed the same organisation as the sequenced Testudines (turtle) outgroup. In contrast, 16 snake species in the suborder Serpentes contained some gene organisational variations. For example, all snake species contained a second control region (CR2), while three species in the family Viperidae had a translocated tRNA-Pro gene region. In addition, the snake species, Elaphe schrenckii, carried a tRNA-Pro pseudogene. We were also able to identify a translocation of a tRNA-Asn gene within the five tRNA (WANCY gene region) gene clusters for two true sea snake species in the subfamily Hydrophiinae. Our BI phylogenetic tree was also well fitted against currently known Korean squamate phylogenetic trees, where each family and genus unit forms monophyletic clades and the suborder Sauria is paraphyletic to the suborder Serpentes. Our results may form the basis for future northeast Asian squamate phylogenetic studies.