Red Fox (vuples Vuples) Mitochondrial Dna Sequence Of The Canine System Studies

The whole mitochondrial genome sequence and structure of red fox(Vuples vuples) was determined. Phylogenetic trees were reconstructed to confirm the phylogenetic relationships of red fox to other canids.The whole mitochondrial genome sequence was determined by Long-PCR. The total length of the red fox mitochondrial genome was 16 723 bp. The base composition was 31.3%A, 26.1%C,14.8%G and 27.8% T respectively. As in most mammal mitochondrial genome, it contained 13 protein coding genes, two ribosome RNA genes,22 transfer RNA genes and one control region. The codon usage of red fox, arctic fox, gray wolf, domestic dog and coyote followed the same pattern except for an unusual ATT start codon, which initiates the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3 gene in the red fox. Except for tRNA-Ser (AGY) lack the dihydrouridine stem and loop (DHU Stem and loop), other tRNAs can fold into typical cloverleaf secondary structure.Based on the different frequencies of base substitutions, the mitochondrial control region may be divided into three domains:the extended termination associated sequence, the central conserved domain and the conserved sequence block. Most of the variations within the control region are clustered within the first and third domain, while the second domain is conserved. Some conserved motifs are also found in all three domains of control region. The ETAS domain located at the 5'end of the CR and contains a termination associated sequence, which can fold into a'hairpin' structure. The central conserved domain includes five conserved blocks (CSB-F, E, D, C, B) and the conserved sequence block domain contains three conserved blocks (CSB-1,2, 3). A long tandem repeat rich in AC was found between conserved sequence block 1 and 2.In order to confirm the phylogenetic relationships of red fox to other canids, phylogenetic trees were reconstructed by neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony methods using 12 concatenated heavy-strand protein-coding genes. The result indicated that red fox was the sister group of arctic fox and they both belong to the red fox-like clade in family Canidae, while gray wolf, domestic dog and coyote belong to wolf-like clade. The result was in accordance with existing phylogenetic results.