The complete mitochondrial genome of the forest crested lizard, Calotes emma (Squamata, Agamidae) in China by the next generation sequencing

The whole mitogenome can prove useful tools for phylogenetic reconstruction and efficiently recover with reasonable taxon sampling. Calotes emma is widely distributed and arboreal in habits. However, studies of C. emma are still very limited, including population genetics and evolutionary biology. In this study, we reported the complete mitochondrial genome of the C. emma by next-generation sequencing for future more researches on systematics and evolution of C. emma from the perspective of mitochondrial DNA. The length of mitogenome was 17,688 bp, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, 22 tRNA genes and a control region. The phylogenetic tree recovered the monophyly of the Calotes and revealed that newly sequenced C. emma well supported as the sister taxon to C. mystaceus by very high posterior probabilities (1.0). The complete mitochondrial genome of C.emma in this study will be helpful for understanding the phylogenetic systematics and relationships, and molecular evolution of Calotes in Agamidae.