The mitogenome of common snipe, Gallinago gallinago gallinago Linnaeus, 1758 and evolutionary implications for the family Scolopacidae

Complete mitochondrial genome MK992912 of Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris) is a chimera with DNA from Pacific Golden Plover Pluvialis fulva (Aves: Charadriiformes)

A complete mitochondrial genome of Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris), MK992912, was published by He and colleagues in 2020. Here we show that this mitogenome is actually a chimera containing DNA fragments of both C. tenuirostris (15,567 bp, 92.8%) and Pacific Golden Plover (Pluvialis fulva, 1208 bp, 7.2%). Detecting such errors is possible before publication if each sequenced fragment is separately analyzed phylogenetically before assembling the fragments into a single mitogenome. This mitogenome has been re-used in at least four phylogenies. The error is documented to avoid the perpetuation of erroneous sequence information in the literature.

The published complete mitochondrial genome of Spotted Greenshank (Tringa guttifer) is a chimera with DNA from Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis) (Aves: Charadriiformes)

A recently published complete mitochondrial genome of Spotted Greenshank (Tringa guttifer) was the first DNA sequence of this species (GenBank accession number MK905885, RefSeq number NC_044665; Liu et al. 2019, The complete mitochondrial genome of the Spotted Greenshank Tringa guttifer (Charadriiforemes [sic]: Charadriidae), Mitochondrial DNA Part B. 4:2353-2354). Here we show that this mitogenome is actually a chimera containing DNA fragments of both a Tringa sandpiper (presumably T. guttifer) and the Red-necked Stint (Calidris ruficollis). This mitogenome has been re-used in at least three phylogenies. The error is documented to avoid the perpetuation of erroneous sequence information in the literature.