The Complete Mitogenome of Falco amurensis (Falconiformes, Falconidae), and a Comparative Analysis of Genus Falco

Abstract

In this study, we sequenced the complete mitogenome of Falco amurensis (Falconiformes, Falconidae). The F. amurensis mitogenome is 17,464 bp long, and contains 37 genes, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two rRNAs, 22 tRNAs, and two non-coding regions (control region and pseudo-control region). Most PCGs initiate with ATG and terminate with TAA. atp8 exhibits the highest evolutionary rate, with cox1 showing the lowest. rrnS and rrnL contain three domains with 46 helices and six domains with 59 helices, respectively. All tRNAs have a typical cloverleaf secondary structure, except that trnS(agy) lacks the dihydrouracil arm. The control region is located between trnT and trnP and the pseudo-control between trnE and trnF. Phylogenetic relationships of 23 species from Falconiformes were analyzed based on the nucleotide sequences of the 13 PCGs and two rRNAs. The results support Falco as a monophyletic taxon, and F. amurensis has a close relationship with the clade containing F. cherrug/F. rusticolus/F. peregrinus.

Falcon genomics in the context of conservation, speciation, and human culture

“…It is based on seven nuclear loci and one mitochondrial haplotype sequences, and two fossil calibration points corresponding to splits between subfamilies of Falconidae, and scaled by estimated divergence time At present, complete mitogenomes are available for nine species of falcons: the American kestrel (Gibb, Kardailsky, Kimball, Braun, & Penny, 2006), peregrine falcon (Ryu, Lee, & Hwang, 2012); merlin (Dou et al, 2016); saker falcon (Lu, Lu, Li, & Jiang, 2016); lesser kestrel ; gyrfalcon (Sveinsdóttir, Guðmundsdóttir, & Magnússon, 2017); prairie falcon (Doyle et al, 2018); amur falcon (Yang, Yang, Wang, Lu, & Li, 2018); and common kestrel (Unpublished, see NCBI Accession: EU196361). While these mitogenomes demonstrate similar patterns of organization to other raptors, they do contain a few intriguing features related to their control regions (Lu et al, 2016;Ryu et al, 2012;Sveinsdóttir et al, 2017;Yang et al, 2018). First, their control regions contain two minisatellites that differ in repeat length and motifs between species and which show intraspecific variation in number of repeats within some species-one of these minisatellites also appears to have been lost in the amur falcon and merlin.…”

Comparative mitogenomics of the genus Motacilla (Aves, Passeriformes) and its phylogenetic implications

“…However, it was difficult to identify sequences corresponding to O H , CSB2, CSB3 and bidirectional LSP/HSP promoters found in other birds (Li et al 2015), which might play important roles in mitogenome replication. Furthermore, tandem repeat sequences in CRs are found in many avian mitogenomes (Yang et al 2018). However, none of the sampled Motacilla CRs contained tandem repeats.…”

“…An increasing number of avian mitogenome sequences are being generated with high-throughput sequencing technology (Morinha et al 2016;Yang et al 2018), facilitating the identification of mitogenomic characteristics such as gene order and base composition through the comparison of mitogenomes. However, the limited Motacilla mitogenomic sequences available from the GenBank database restricts the exploration of mitogenome features in this genus.…”