The complete mitochondrial genome of an agamid lizard from the Afro-Asian subfamily agaminae and the phylogenetic position of Bufoniceps and Xenagama

Squamate reptiles are traditionally divided into six groups: Iguania, Anguimorpha, Scincomorpha, Gekkota (these four are lizards), Serpentes (snakes), and Amphisbaenia (the so-called worm lizards). The Iguania is recognized as having two major lineages the Iguanidae and Acrodonta (Agamidae and Chamaeleonidae). Currently, there are complete mitochondrial genomes from three Anguimorpha (Kumazawa, 2004; Kumazawa and Endo, 2004), two from the Scincomorpha (Kumazawa, 2004; Kumazawa and Nishida, 1999), one from Gekkota (Macey et al., 2005) two from Serpentes (Kumazawa, 2004; Kumazawa et al., 1998) and 12 from Amphisbaenia (Macey et al., 2004). In addition, two representatives of the Iguanian family Iguanidae (Janke et al., 2001; Kumazawa, 2004) have been sequenced. Its' sister taxon, the Acrodonta, consists of seven monophyletic groups-the family Chamaeleonidae and six distantly related subfamilies of the family Agamidae (Macey et al., 2000b). Currently, the only acrodont lineage sequenced for the complete mitochondrial genome is Pogona vitticeps from the Australasian agamid subfamily Amphibolurinae (Amer and Kumazawa, 2005a). Here, we report the complete mitochondrial genome of Xenagama taylori, a North African representative of the agamid subfamily Agaminae and compare it to P. vitticepes. The agamid lizard genus Xenagama is distributed in a restricted region of the Horn of Africa in northwestern Somalia and adjacent eastern Ethiopia as shown in Fig. 1, with two species currently recognized (Moody, 1980; Wermuth, 1967). In addition, we report a segment of the mitochondrial genome of Bufoniceps laungwalansis spanning from nad1 to cox1. The monotypic genus Bufoniceps is restricted to the Thar Desert, Jaisalmer District, Rajasthan State, India and adjacent Pakistan (Fig. 1). Both Bufoniceps and Xenagama belong to the subfamily Agaminae and are poorly understood phylogenetically. These genera were not represented in the most recent molecular systematic study of the Agamidae (Macey et al., 2000b). Bufoniceps was originally described as a member of the West Asian genus Phrynocephalus (Sharma, 1978), and later placed in its' own genus (Arnold, 1992) because morphological data suggested it is the sister taxon to Phrynocephalus (Arnold, 1999). Xenagama was previously considered part of the Agama complex before the allocation of its member species to several genera (see, Moody, 1980).