Structure and comparative analysis of the mitochondrial genomes of Liolaemus lizards with different modes of reproduction and ploidy levels
Liolaemus is the most specious genus of the Squamata lizards in South America, presenting exceptional evolutionary radiation and speciation patterns. This recent diversification complicates the formal taxonomic treatment and the phylogenetic analyses of this group, causing relationships among spe...
Guardado en:
| Autores principales: | , , , , |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
PeerJ Inc.
2024
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://repositorio.unne.edu.ar/handle/123456789/54377 |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | Liolaemus is the most specious genus of the Squamata lizards in South America,
presenting exceptional evolutionary radiation and speciation patterns. This recent
diversification complicates the formal taxonomic treatment and the phylogenetic
analyses of this group, causing relationships among species to remain controversial.
Here we used Next-Generation Sequencing to do a comparative analysis of the
structure and organization of the complete mitochondrial genomes of three
differently related species of Liolaemus and with different reproductive strategies and
ploidy levels. The annotated mitochondrial genomes of ca. 17 kb are the first for the
Liolaemidae family. Despite the high levels of sequence similarity among the three
mitochondrial genomes over most of their lengths, the comparative analyses revealed
variations at the stop codons of the protein coding genes and the structure of the
tRNAs among species. The presence of a non-canonical dihydrouridine loop is a
novelty for the pleurodonts iguanians. But the highest level of variability was
observed in two repetitive sequences of the control region, which were responsible for
most of the length heterogeneity of the mitochondrial genomes. These tandem
repeats may be useful markers to analyze relationships of closely related species of
Liolaemus and related genera and to conduct population and phylogenetic studies. |
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