Genetics and Molecular Biology ()

Comparative mitogenomic analyses of Amazona parrots and Psittaciformes

  • Nicholas Costa Barroso Lima,
  • André Elias Rodrigues Soares,
  • Luiz Gonzaga de Paula Almeida,
  • Igor Rodrigues da Costa,
  • Fernanda Midori Sato,
  • Patricia Schneider,
  • Alexandre Aleixo,
  • Maria Paula Schneider,
  • Fabrício R. Santos,
  • Claudio V. Mello,
  • Cristina Miyaki,
  • Ana Tereza R. Vasconcelos,
  • Francisco Prosdocimi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/1678-4685-gmb-2017-0023
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 41, no. 3
pp. 593 – 604

Abstract

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Abstract Amazon parrots are long-lived birds with highly developed cognitive skills, including vocal learning. Several parrot mitogenomes have been sequenced, but important aspects of their organization and evolution are not fully understood or have limited experimental support. The main aim of the present study was to describe the mitogenome of the blue-fronted Amazon, Amazona aestiva, and compare it to other mitogenomes from the genus Amazona and the order Psittaciformes. We observed that mitogenomes are highly conserved among Amazon parrots, and a detailed analysis of their duplicated control regions revealed conserved blocks. Population level analyses indicated that the specimen analyzed here seems to be close to A. aestiva individuals from Bahia state. Evolutionary relationships of 41 Psittaciformes species and three outgroups were inferred by BEAST. All relationships were retrieved with high support.

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