Natural Resources, School of
Mitogenome of northern long-eared bat
Document Type Article
Copyright 2020 The Authors. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
Abstract
The complete mitogenome of the northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) was determined to be 17,362 bp and contained 22 tRNA genes, 2 rRNA genes and one control region. The whole genome base composition was 33.8% GC. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that M. septentrionalis be positioned next to M. auriculus in the Nearctic subclade of the Myotis genus. This complete mitochondrial genome provides essential molecular markers for resolving phylogeny and future conservation efforts.
The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) has recently experienced drastic population declines in eastern and midwestern parts of its range because of the invasive fungal disease white-nose syndrome (WNS) (Frick et al. 2015; Langwig et al. 2015). The disease induces physiological and behavioral changes in bats during hibernation, which can result in death (Verant et al. 2014). Population declines have been so severe that M. septentrionalis was listed as threatened in the United States of America (USFWS 2015) and endangered in Canada (COSEWIC 2013). M. septentrionalis seems to be more susceptible to WNS than other closely related species, such as the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus); however, the cause of this susceptibility has yet to be determined and may be due to genetic differences or varying environmental preferences (Frick et al. 2015; Langwig et al. 2016). Regulation of specific mitochondrial genes, including COI, ND2, ATP6 and ATP8, is crucial during the hibernation process (Hittel and Storey 2002); therefore, comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes of hibernating bat species might offer some insight into how WNS affects species differently. Here we report the first complete mitogenome of M. septentrionalis and examine the phylogenetic position of M. septentrionalis within the genus Myotis based on complete mitogenomes.