The published complete mitochondrial genome of Eptesicus serotinus is a chimera of Vespertilio sinensis and Hypsugo alaschanicus (Mammalia: Chiroptera)

The mitogenome of Eptesicus serotinus (Serotine bat) was published in 2013 with GenBank accession number KF111725 and NCBI Reference Sequence number NC_022474. This sequence was placed with Vespertilio sinensis (Asian parti-colored bat) in a COI gene tree but with Hypsugo alashanicus (Alashanian pipistrelle) in a cytochrome b gene tree. Direct comparison of mitogenomes showed that 92.4% of this mitogenome is similar to Vespertilio sinensis, 5.9% to Hypsugo alaschanicus, and that 1.6% of the mitogenome could not be attributed to either species, or any other species. This mitogenome has been re-used in at least 17 phylogenies. Our findings suggest that mitogenomes are best verified with multiple gene trees, followed by direct comparison of sequences. We conclude that greater vigilance is warranted to ensure that problematic sequences do not enter the scientific record, and are not re-used in subsequent studies.