In the last two decades, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has become one of the most used genetic markers for studying evolution and phylogeny. Understanding mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) structure, gene arrangements, base compositions and noncoding regions can reveal valuable information on various organisms, including wild ungulates. A huge number of sequenced mammalian mitogenomes are available on GenBank, including 8074 mitogenome sequences of wild ungulates. The Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) approach can reveal mitogenome regions that can explain the variation in populations. Such variations could show ungulates’ resistance to pathogens or processes of their adaptation. Despite the extensive number of new sequenced mitogenomes, there is still a lot of ambiguity around the mitogenome architecture. Methods for NGS, genome assembly and annotation are still in the process of development, aiming to make these tools powerful enough to reveal enormous knowledge crucial for assessing wild ungulate species’ conservation status, and their ecological status. In this review paper, we describe the methods and principles derived from mtDNA studies on wild ungulate species. We outline basic sequence preparation methods and specialized software for mitogenome assembly and annotation. Additionally, we present several different approaches of mitogenome comparison.

mitochondrial DNA, mitogenome, mtDNA assembly, mtDNA annotation, wild ungulates, phylogeny

Published by University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagreb, CROATIA
Sponsored by Ministry Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia