Gene organization of the Peking duck mitochondrial genome

The gene organization of the Peking duck mitochondrial (mt)DNA has been deduced through heterologous hybridization using different cloned fragments of the chicken or Japanese quail mitochondrial genome as probes. As in the chicken, and other gallinaceous birds, the Peking duck mtDNA displays a novel gene order which differs from that of other vertebrates by the unusual localization of the tRNA(Glu) and ND6 genes next to the displacement (D) loop region of the molecule. The position of these genes with respect to the mitochondrial D-loop region, the cytochrome oxidase subunits I, II and III, the NADH dehydrogenase subunit I and the ribosomal (r) RNAs, was confirmed by the partial nucleotide sequence of cloned mtDNA fragments.