The whole mitochondrial genome sequence of red fox (
Vuples vuples
) was determined. It had a total
length of 16 723 bp. As in most mammal mitochondrial genome, it contained 13 protein coding genes, two ribosome RNA
genes, 22 transfer RNA genes and one control region. The base composition was 31.3% A, 26.1% C, 14.8% G and 27.8%
T, respectively. The codon usage of red fox, arctic fox, gray wolf, domestic dog and coyote followed the same pattern
except for an unusual ATT start codon, which initiates the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3 gene in the red fox. A long
tandem repeat rich in AC was found between conserved sequence block 1 and 2 in the control region. In order to confirm
the phylogenetic relationships of red fox to other canids, phylogenetic trees were reconstructed by neighbor-joining and
maximum parsimony methods using 12 concatenated heavy-strand protein-coding genes. The result indicated that arctic
fox was the sister group of red fox and they both belong to the red fox-like clade in family Canidae, while gray wolf,
domestic dog and coyote belong to wolf-like clade. The result was in accordance with existing phylogenetic results.
