The first complete mitochondrial genome data of the Afghan pika Ochotona rufescens (Lagomorpha, Ochotonidae), near the type locality
Anwesha Saha,
Mateusz Baca,
Danijela Popović,
Zeinolabedin Mohammadi,
Urban Olsson,
Emily Roycroft,
Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik
Affiliations
Anwesha Saha
Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00–818 Warsaw, Poland; Centre of New Technologies (CeNT), University of Warsaw, S. Banacha 2c, 02–097 Warsaw, Poland
Mateusz Baca
Centre of New Technologies (CeNT), University of Warsaw, S. Banacha 2c, 02–097 Warsaw, Poland
Danijela Popović
Centre of New Technologies (CeNT), University of Warsaw, S. Banacha 2c, 02–097 Warsaw, Poland
Zeinolabedin Mohammadi
Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran
Urban Olsson
Systematics and Biodiversity, Department of Biology and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Box 463, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden; Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Box 461, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
Emily Roycroft
Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
Łucja Fostowicz-Frelik
Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00–818 Warsaw, Poland; Corresponding author.
The Afghan pika Ochotona rufescens (Gray, 1842) is widely distributed across the mountains of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and southwestern Turkmenistan, most often at elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 m. Here we present, for the first time, the complete mitochondrial genomes of two specimens of the nominotypical subspecies Ochotona rufescens rufescens, de novo assembled from Illumina short reads of fragmented probe-enriched DNA. The lengths of the circular mitogenomes are 16,408 bp and 16,407 bp, respectively. Both mitogenomes contain 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNAs (16S rRNA and 12S rRNA), 22 transfer RNA genes, and a control region. The gene NAD6 and the tRNA (Gln), tRNA (Ala), tRNA (Asn), tRNA (Cys), tRNA (Tyr), tRNA (Ser), tRNA (Glu), and tRNA (Pro) are encoded on the light strand while the rest are encoded on the heavy strand. The overall nucleotide composition was ∼30% for A, 25% for T, 15% for G, and 29% for C. The mitogenome data are available in the GenBank under the accession numbers ON859136 and ON859137.
