Thrice better than once: quality control guidelines to validate new mitogenomes

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Biology
• Genomics
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Mitogenomic data are crucial for evolutionary biology and ecology.
• Accurate DNA sequence authentication is essential for reliable research.
• Previous studies have highlighted the importance of verifying sequence data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To re-evaluate the taxonomic attribution of a recently published bat mitochondrial genome.
• To demonstrate the utility of phylogenetic analyses in identifying misidentified sequences.
• To propose standards for publishing mitogenomic data to prevent future errors.

Main Methods:

• Phylogenetic analyses of available chiropteran sequence data.
• Comparison of the suspect mitogenome with existing reference sequences.
• Construction of maximum likelihood trees using standard barcoding markers and related mitogenomes.

Main Results:

• The mitochondrial genome reported by Szcześniak et al. (2013) for Rousettus leschenaultii was found to be misidentified.
• Phylogenetic analyses strongly suggest the sequence belongs to Rousettus aegyptiacus.
• A reference sequence for R. aegyptiacus already exists in public databases.

Conclusions:

• Future publications of complete mitochondrial genomes should include robust phylogenetic analyses.
• Mandatory inclusion of maximum likelihood trees and phylograms is recommended.
• Standardized reporting of geographical origin and specimen details will improve data authenticity.