The complete mitochondrial genomes of Tarsiger cyanurus and Phoenicurus auroreus: a phylogenetic analysis of Passeriformes

Abstract

Passeriformes is the largest group within aves and the phylogenetic relationships between Passeriformes have caused major disagreement in ornithology. Particularly, the phylogenetic relationships between muscicapoidea and sylvioidea are complex, and their taxonomic boundaries have not been clearly defined. Our aim was to study the status of two bird species: Tarsiger cyanurus and Phoenicurus auroreus. Furthermore, we analyzed the phylogenetic relationships of Passeriformes. Complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of both species were determined and the lengths were 16,803 (T. cyanurus) and 16,772 bp (P. auroreus), respectively. Thirteen protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and one control region were identified in these mtDNAs. The contents of A and T at the base compositions was significantly higher than the content of G and C, and this AT skew was positive, while the GC skew was negative. The monophyly of Passeriformes is divided into four major clades: Corvoidea, Sylvioidea, Passeroidea, and Musicicapoidea. Paridae should be separated from the superfamily Sylvioidea and placed within the superfamily Muscicapoidea. The family Muscicapidae and Corvida were paraphyly, while Carduelis and Emberiza were grouped as a sister taxon. The relationships between some species of the order passeriformes may remain difficult to resolve despite an effort to collect additional characters for phylogenetic analysis. Current research of avian phylogeny should focus on adding characters and taxa and use both effectively to obtain a better resolution for deeper and shallow nodes.

The published complete mitochondrial genome of Blue-fronted Redstart ( Phoenicurus frontalis ) is a chimera and includes DNA from Pink-rumped Rosefinch Carpodacus waltoni eos (Aves: Passeriformes)

“…When we noticed that one of these data sets ( ND2 ) showed a different, but strongly supported, position of Phoenicurus frontalis than the other data sets, we visually compared the complete Phoenicurus frontalis sequence with those of two other Phoenicurus sequences (KF997863, Zhang et al. 2018 ; MN122900, unpublished) and the mitogenome of Carpodacus pulcherrimus (MT648821, Yang et al. 2020 ) and determined the first and last positions of the anomalous fragment (Sangster and Luksenburg 2021a ).…”

“… 2020 ), Phoenicurus auroreus KF997863 (Zhang et al. 2018 ), Phoenicurus frontalis MT360379 (Li et al. 2020 ), Phoenicurus phoenicurus MN122900 (unpublished) and Turdus obscurus MZ337397 (Zhang et al.…”

Identification and phylogenetic analysis in Pterorhinus chinensis (Aves, Passeriformes, Leiothrichidae) based on complete mitogenome

“… Alauda arvensis (GenBank Accession No. JQ322641 ) was used as an outgroup ( Zhang et al 2018a ). Sequences of three species, Pterorhinus albogularis ( NC_037464 ), Pterorhinus poecilorhynchus ( NC_028082 ) and Trochalopteron milnei ( NC_041141 ), were excluded because each of these represented a chimera with DNA of two different species ( Sangster and Luksenburg 2021 ).…”