The complete mitochondrial genome of Gyps coprotheres (Aves, Accipitridae, Accipitriformes): phylogenetic analysis of mitogenome among raptors

Abstract

Three species of Old World vultures on the Asian peninsula are slowly recovering from the lethal consequences of diclofenac. At present the reason for species sensitivity to diclofenac is unknown. Furthermore, it has since been demonstrated that other Old World vultures like the Cape (Gyps coprotheres; CGV) and griffon (G. fulvus) vultures are also susceptible to diclofenac toxicity. Oddly, the New World Turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) and pied crow (Corvus albus) are not susceptible to diclofenac toxicity. As a result of the latter, we postulate an evolutionary link to toxicity. As a first step in understanding the susceptibility to diclofenac toxicity, we use the CGV as a model species for phylogenetic evaluations, by comparing the relatedness of various raptor species known to be susceptible, non-susceptible and suspected by their relationship to the Cape vulture mitogenome. This was achieved by next generation sequencing and assembly. The Cape vulture mitogenome had a genome size of 16,908 bp. The mitogenome phylogenetic analysis indicated a close evolutionary relationship between Old World vultures and other members of the Accipitridae as indicated by bootstrap value of 100% on the phylogenetic trees. Based on this, we postulate that the other species could also be sensitive to the toxic effects of diclofenac. This warrants further investigations.

Mitogenomic analysis of extant condor species provides insight into the molecular evolution of vultures

“…1 ). As previously observed in partial mtDNA sequences 35 , NW vultures exhibited the ancestral avian gene order, while OW species differed from the standard arrangement due to the presence of a pseudo control region 14 , 52 – 54 . The overall base composition of condors was similar (A = ~31%, T = ~23%, C = ~32%, G = ~13%), showing a slight A + T bias for most regions, except ND6 that showed a marked C + G bias, similar ( r > 0.9; P < 0.001 in all cases) to other vultures (Figure S1 ).…”

“…Our analysis of PCGs in condors showed that COX3, ND4 and CYTB, share the same transcriptional exceptions of Turkey vultures, where TAA stop codon is completed by the addition of two 3' A residues to the mRNA. This exception has been reported for COX3, ND2 and ND4 in the Griffon (Gyps fulvus) and Cape (Gyps coprotheres) vultures 53,54 , and for ND2 in the Cinereous vulture and Himalayan griffon 14,52 . In addition, we found a frameshift in the ND3 gene of both condors, suggesting an alternative reading of mitochondrial mRNA.…”

Molecular characterization of Gyps africanus (African white-backed vulture) organic anion transporter 1 and 2 expressed in the kidney

“…The assembled transcriptome was converted to a local Blast database and OAT1 and OAT2 sequences were identified based on the predicted sequences from the Golden Eagle OAT1 (XM_011601043.1) and OAT2 (XM_011585794.1). The Golden Eagle was selected since the two species have been shown to be closely related [ 23 ].…”

Beyond the Chicken: Alternative Avian Models for Developmental Physiological Research

“…The eyes of raptors have been analyzed, revealing visual mechanisms that have been applied to the field of optics (Snyder and Miller, 1978 ). As for other non-chicken bird models, research in birds of prey is being facilitated by advances in understanding of their genomics and transcriptomics (Bartholomew and Tucker, 1963 ; Zhan et al, 2013 ; Pan et al, 2017 ; Kang et al, 2018 ; Cho et al, 2019 ; Doyle et al, 2019 ; Adawaren et al, 2020 ). Interestingly, modern day falconry (training and hunting with raptors) offers an excellent opportunity for research on topics that require conditioning or problem-solving skills in non-mammalians, including the development of such skills.…”