The complete mitochondrial genome of Macaca thibetana and a novel nuclear mitochondrial pseudogene

The complete mitochondrial genome of Macaca thibetana was determined by the long and accurate polymerase chain reaction (LA-PCR) and primer walking sequencing methods. It is 16,540 bp and contains 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and one control region. Most codon usage followed the typical pattern of vertebrates. Two rare start codons were found, in which GTG initiated the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) gene and the ATP8 gene, and ATT initiated the ND2 gene. A new mitochondrial DNA-like sequence (2003 bp) in the nuclear genome of M. thibetana was found. It matched with the 3′ end of the ND1 gene, the tRNAIle-tRNAGln-tRNAMet genes, the ND2 gene, and the 5′ end of the tRNATrp gene. Sequence divergence between the nuclear pseudogene and the mitochondrial homologue suggested that the translocation of this mtDNA fragment into the nuclear genome occurred 3.16 ∼ 3.48 million years ago (MYA). Molecular phylogenetic analysis of 16 Cercopithecidae species was performed using sequences from 12 concatenated heavy-strand encoded protein coding genes. The results provided more evidence to support previous morphological and chromosomal studies on Cercopithecidae.