Complete mitochondrial genome of ring-necked pheasant Phasianus colchicus alaschanicus from China's Helan Mountains and description of its phylogenetic relationships in Galliformes

Phasianus colchicus alaschanicus, Phasianidae, Galliformes is known only from the Helan Mountains of Ningxia and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regions, China. Due to few studies on this subspecies, the taxonomic status of Phasianus colchicus alaschanicus in Galliformes is unclear. We sequenced the mitochondrial genome of one P. c. alaschanicus and downloaded 36 species of 22 genera from GeneBank to construct a phylogenetic tree based on the Maximum Likelihood (ML) method. The mitochondrial genome sequence length of P. c. alaschanicus was 16,688 bp with a base composition of 30.6% A, 25.3% T, 30.8% C, and 13.3% G, including two rRNA genes (12S rRNA, 16S rRNA), 22 tRNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, and a control region. We confirmed the genetic classification status of P. c. alaschanicus in Galliformes. The Phasianidae formed a complex clade, which could be separated into eighteen lineages. P. c. alaschanicus was a sister group of the remaining taxa (posterior probabilities 100% in ML).