Phylogenetic analysis of the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) from China based on mitochondrial genome

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Meriones unguiculatus (Gerbillinae, Rodentia) is widely used as an animal model of human disease. Here, we provide the first report of the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of M. unguiculatus (GenBank accession Nos. KF425526 and NC_023263). The sequence contained the conserved vertebrate pattern of 13 proteincoding genes, 2 ribosomal RNAs, 22 transfer RNAs, and 1 major noncoding region. We identified one extended termination-associated sequence and one conserved sequence block in the non-coding region. The putative origin of replication for the light strand (O L ) was 35 bp long. The O L stem and adjacent sequences were highly conserved, but the loop region differed from those of other rodent species. Base composition and codon usage of the 13 protein-coding genes in M. unguiculatus were compared with those of 23 rodent species with previously sequenced mitochondrial genomes. An A+T content of 63.0% was present in M. unguiculatus; this is similar to the Murinae average (62.4 ± 0.8%) and falls between the average for Mus musculus (63.1 ± 0.1%) and Rattus sp (61.7 ± 0.4%). The AT and GC skew values of M. unguiculatus were 0.035 and -0.28, respectively, similar to those of Cricetinae species (0.057 ± 0.05 and -0.31 ± 0.05). The codon families exhibited similar abundance in all 24 species. Analysis of phylogenetic relationships with 23 other rodent species using neighbor-joining and maximum likelihood protocols and the 12 protein-coding regions on the H strand showed that M. unguiculatus should be classified as genus Meriones, sub-family Gerbillinae, family Muridae.

Gamete Recognition Gene Divergence Yields a Robust Eutherian Phylogeny across Taxonomic Levels

“…Within the suborder Myomorpha, the family Dipodidae was placed as the basal-most taxon, followed by Spalacidae, followed by a clade of Gerbillidae as basal to a sister group of Cricetidae and Muridae, consistent with various other comprehensive studies [30,[164][165][166]. At both the family-and species-levels, the relationship and position of gerbils relative to the families Cricetidae and Muridae has long been discordant based on morphologic and molecular characters [167,168] and continues to be a controversy among the rodents. However, the Zan sequences provided herein support the hypothesis that gerbils should be recognized as a separate family, within Myomorpha and basal to the families Cricetidae and Muridae.…”

De novo sequencing and initial annotation of the Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) genome

“…Similarly, it has been found that the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of M. unguiculatus (GenBank accession Nos. KF425526 and NC_023263) displays the typical complement of 37 genes, and a similar base composition and codon usage as compared to several other rodent species [61,62] Almost identical sequence of gene and protein for 8 individual genes further indicate that these shared genes are highly conserved among these species. For the remaining 19% of genes, 6% are shared between gerbil and mouse, while only 1.5% are shared with human.…”

Carcinogenic Helicobacter pylori Strains Selectively Dysregulate the In Vivo Gastric Proteome, Which May Be Associated with Stomach Cancer Progression*

“…2, pooled lysates were digested and labeled with iTRAQ reagents, and quantitative analyses were performed following 2D LC-MS/MS on a Q Exactive Plus mass spectrometer. Mass spectra were searched against a database containing the Mus musculus subset of the UniprotKB protein database because a complete annotated Meriones unguiculatus protein database is unavailable, and there is high homology between Mus musculus proteins and predicted Meriones ungulculatus genome sequences (25). Quantitative proteomic analysis from two biological replicate experiments quantified a total of 2764 proteins, 166 of which were significantly altered in abundance following H. pylori infection, compared with uninfected samples (supplemental Table S1).…”