First mitochondrial genome of the marbled polecat Vormela peregusna (Carnivora, Mustelidae)

Liliane Boukhdoud; Lillian D Parker; Nancy Rotzel Mcinerney; Carole Saliba; Rhea Kahale; Hugh Cross; Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith; Jesús E Maldonado; Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat

doi:10.1080/23802359.2021.1894997

First mitochondrial genome of the marbled polecat Vormela peregusna (Carnivora, Mustelidae)

Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2021 Mar 18;6(3):1009-1011. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2021.1894997.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Laboratoire Biodiversité et Génomique Fonctionnelle, Faculté des Sciences, Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut, Lebanon.
² Center for Conservation Genomics, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA.
³ School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
⁴ Department of Anatomy, School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Abstract

The marbled polecat, Vormela peregusna, is one of the least studied species in the Mustelidae family, especially with regard to phylogeography and genetic diversity. In this study, we determined the mitochondrial genome sequence of V. peregusna and investigated its position within the Mustelidae phylogeny. The generated mitogenome is 15,982 bp in length; it consists of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region.

Keywords: Eastern Mediterranean Region; Marbled polecat; Mustelidae; Vormela peregusna; historical DNA; mitochondrial genome.

Grants and funding

The project was funded by grants from the Convention on Biological Diversity under FERI “Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative” program, from the U.S. embassy in Lebanon and from the Research Council of Saint-Joseph University USJ FS-150.