Complete mitochondrial genome of Chrysolophus pictus (Galliformes: Phasianidae), a protected and endangered pheasant species of China

The complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of Golden pheasant Chrysolophus pictus from North China was sequenced by the shotgun genome skimming methods. The mitogenome of C. pictus was 16,678 bp in length, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, two rRNA genes and one non-coding control region ( D -loop). Its overall base composition is 30.5% A, 24.7% T, 31.2% C and 13.6% G. All protein-coding genes have a typical ATG initiation codon except COI with GTG and most of them terminated with a TAA codon, whereas ND1, ND6 and COX2 terminated with a codon of TAG, and ATP6, COX3, ND2 and ND4 terminated with a single T. The phylogenetic trees constructed using 13 protein-coding genes showed that Chrysolophus species formed a monophyletic group, which is sister to the clade clustered by the two genera Crossoptilon and Lophura .