Next generation sequencing and comparative analyses of Xenopusmitogenomes

Mitochondrial genomes comprise a small but critical component of the total DNA ineukaryotic organisms. They encode several key proteins for the cell‟s major energyproducing apparatus, the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Additonally, their nucleotide andamino acid sequences are of great utility as markers for systematics, molecular ecology andforensics. Their characterization through nucleotide sequencing is a fundamental startingpoint in mitogenomics. Methods to amplify complete mitochondrial genomes rapidly andefficiently from microgram quantities of tissue of single individuals are, however, not alwaysavailable. Here we validate two approaches, which combine long-PCR with Roche 454pyrosequencing technology, to obtain two complete mitochondrial genomes from individualamphibian species.