Characterization and comparison of mitogenomes of three 'eyed' turtles Sacalia spp.

In this paper, we characterized the mitogenomes of three 'eyed' turtles, the Beal's Eyed turtle (Sacalia bealei), the Four Eye-spotted turtle (S. quadriocellata), and the Hainan Four Eye-spotted turtle which was a unique lineage in the four-eyed turtle and considered as an independent speciesS. insulensisrecently. The full lengths of theS. bealeiandS. quadriocellatamitogenomes are 16,564 bp, and 16,555 bp, respectively, while the length of partial mitochondrial genome ofS. insulensisis 16,433 bp without tailed part of D-loop. All the genes exhibit the typical mitochondrial gene arrangement and transcribing directions of turtles. Phylogenetic analysis indicating that a deep divergence about 7.8% p distance was found betweenS. bealeiand (S. quadriocellata + S. insulensis), and the divergence (2.8% in patristic distance) betweenS. quadriocellataandS. insulensisis comparable with other closely related species in turtles.