Mitochondrial genome of the critically endangered Baer's Pochard, Aythya baeri, and its phylogenetic relationship with other Anatidae species

Historically, the diving duck, Baer's Pochard (Aythya baeri) was widely distributed in East and South Asia, but according to a recent estimate, its global population is now less than 1000 individuals. To date, the mitochondrial genome of A. baeri has not been deposited and is not available in GenBank. Therefore, we aimed to sequence the complete mitochondrial genome of this species. The genome was 16,623 bp in length, double stranded, circular in shape, and contained 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes, and one non-coding control region. Many structural and compositional similarities were discovered between A. baeri and the other three Aythya mitochondrial genomes. Among 13 protein-coding genes of the four Aythya species, the fastest-evolving gene was ATP8 while the slowest-evolving gene was COII. Furthermore, the phylogenetic tree of Anatidae based on Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods showed that the relationships among 15 genera of the Anatidae family were as follows: Dendrocygna was an early diverging lineage that was fairly distant from the other ingroup taxa; Cygnus, Branta, and Anser were clustered into one branch that corresponded to the Anserinae subfamily; and Aythya, Asarcornis, Netta, Anas, Mareca, Mergus, Lophodytes, Bucephala, Tadorna, Cairina, and Aix were clustered into another branch that corresponded to the Anatinae subfamily. Our target species and three other Aythya species formed a monophyletic group. These results provide new mitogenomic information to support further phylogenetic and taxonomic studies and genetic conservation of Anatidae species.

Automated summary

The study sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of Baer's Pochard and found structural and compositional similarities with other Aythya species. Among the protein-coding genes of Aythya species, ATP8 was identified as the fastest-evolving gene, while COII was the slowest-evolving gene. The phylogenetic tree of Anatidae family showed that the target species and three other Aythya species formed a monophyletic group.