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. 2020 Jul 20;10(1):11936.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-68724-6.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Indian gaur, Bos gaurus and its phylogenetic implications

Ranganathan Kamalakkannan #  1 , Karippadakam Bhavana #  1 , Vandana R Prabhu #  1 , Dhandapani Sureshgopi  1 , Hijam Surachandra Singha  1 , Muniyandi Nagarajan  2
Affiliations

The complete mitochondrial genome of Indian gaur, Bos gaurus and its phylogenetic implications

Ranganathan Kamalakkannan et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

The gaur is the largest extant cattle species and distributed across South and Southeast Asia. Around 85% of its current global population resides in India, however there has been a gradual decrease in the gaur population over the last two decades due to various anthropogenic activities. Mitochondrial genome is considered as an important tool for species identification and monitoring the populations of conservation concern and therefore it becomes an obligation to sequence the mitochondrial genome of Indian gaur. We report here for the first time 16,345 bp mitochondrial genome of four Indian gaur sequenced using two different approaches. Mitochondrial genome consisted of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region. Among the 37 genes, 28 were positioned on the H-strand and 9 were positioned on the L-strand. The overall base composition appeared to be 33.5% A, 27.2% T, 25.9% C and 13.4% G, which yielded a higher AT content. The phylogenetic analysis using complete mitochondrial genome sequences unambiguously suggested that gaur is the maternal ancestor of domestic mithun. Moreover, it also clearly distinguished the three sub species of B. gaurus i.e. B. gaurus gaurus, B. gaurus readei and B. gaurus hubbacki. Among the three sub species, B. gaurus gaurus was genetically closer to B. gaurus readei as compared to B. gaurus hubbacki. The findings of our study provide an insight into the genetic structure and evolutionary history of Indian gaur.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The mitochondrial genome map of Indian gaur. The colored blocks outside the circle denote 28 genes encoded on the H-strand and the colored blocks inside the circle denote the remaining 9 genes encoded on the L-strand. The total GC content of the mitochondrial genome is represented by an inner ring. The mitochondrial genome map was generated using the web server OGDRAW. The Indian gaur photograph was taken by the fourth author Dhandapani Sureshgopi. The final figure was edited manually in Inkscape 1.0. (https://inkscape.org).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The AT and GC content and skewness of Indian, Cambodian and Malayan gaur mitochondrial genome. MT345892, MT345893, MT360652, MT360653-Indian gaur; JN632604-Cambodian gaur; MK770201-Malayan gaur. The figure was edited in Inkscape 1.0. (https://inkscape.org).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Codon usage of the mitochondrial protein coding genes of Indian gaur (A). Relative synonymous codon usage (B). Codon usage frequency. Codon families are plotted on the X axis and represented by different color. The RSCU and codon usage frequency are plotted on the Y axis of figure (A) and (B) respectively. The figure was edited in Inkscape 1.0. (https://inkscape.org).
Figure 4
Figure 4
The predicted secondary structures of 22 typical tRNA genes of Indian gaur. Base pairing between G and C is represented by red dots whereas base pairing between A and U is represented by blue dots. Of the four gaur samples three had anticodon GAA for trnF while the sample GR01 had anticodon AAA for trnF and no other structural difference was observed between the samples. The tRNA structures were generated using the web server tRNAscan-SE and edited in Inkscape 1.0. (https://inkscape.org).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Phylogenetic relationship of Bos species inferred from whole mitochondrial genome. Bayesian and maximum parsimony trees were constructed using 16,345 bp sequences of eight Bos species. The Syncerus caffer mitochondrial genome sequence was used as an out-group. Numbers adjacent to the nodes represent Bayesian posterior probability and bootstrap values. Mitochondrial genome sequences except Indian gaur sequences were retrieved from GenBank and their accession numbers are given in parentheses. The tree was generated using the softwares MEGAand MrBayes. The pictures of different cattle species given in the tree was drawn using Inkscape 1.0. (https://inkscape.org). The figure was edited in Inkscape 1.0.
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