Characteristics of the mitochondrial genome of and related species in Ranidae: Gene rearrangements and phylogenetic relationships.

The Omei wood frog (), endemic to central China, belongs to the family Ranidae. In this study, we achieved detail knowledge about the mitogenome of the species. The length of the genome is 20,120 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and a noncoding control region. Similar to other amphibians, we found that only nine genes (ND6 and eight tRNA genes) are encoded on the light strand (L) and other genes on the heavy strand (H). Totally, The base composition of the mitochondrial genome included 27.29% A, 28.85% T, 28.87% C, and 15.00% G, respectively. The control regions among the species were found to exhibit rich genetic variability and A + T content. was clustered together with in phylogenetic tree. Compared to and , it was more closely related to , and a new way of gene rearrangement (ND6-trnE-Cytb-D-loop-trnL2 (CUN)-ND5-D-loop) was also found in the mitogenome of and . Our results about the mitochondrial genome of will contribute to the future studies on phylogenetic relationship and the taxonomic status of and related Ranidae species.