Molecular phylogenetic relationships among Asiatic shrewlike moles inferred from the complete mitogenomes

Asiatic shrewlike moles are distributed almost entirely in south-west China; four of the five species of the genus Uropsilus, Uropsilus aequodonenia, U. andersoni, U. investigator and U. soricipes are endemic to China. Excluding the five species, three cryptic species (U. sp. 1, U. sp. 2 and U. sp. 3) and two putative species, U. nivatus and U. atronates, are recognized. The phylogenetic relationships among the species remain unclear and these preclude investigations of their potential adaptations for living in high altitudes. We sequenced the complete mitochondrial DNA genomes of three species of Asiatic shrewlike moles (U. aequodonenia, U. andersoni and U. nivatus). Phylogenetic analyses of 16 published and our de novo mitogenomes yield single, robust trees with the relationships being (U. soricipes (U. sp. 1 (U. nivatus (U. andersoni, U. aequodonenia)))). Further, the tree verifies the validity of recently described U. aequodonenia. Analyses of selection pressure suggest that the 13 mtDNA-encoding genes of species in the genus Uropsilus all have experienced strong purifying selection, although ATP8 accumulated a higher ratio of non-synonymous substitutions than the other loci, which might reflect adaptation of the genus Uropsilus to different environments/elevations.