Complete nucleotide mtDNA sequence of Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia)

In this report we describe the complete sequence of the mtDNA genome of Ammotragus lervia (Barbary sheep or aoudad) as obtained by PCR and sequencing with primer walking using flanking sequences. The molecule is 16,530 base pairs in length, resulting similar to those of goat and sheep. The genome organization matches to those of other mammalian mitochondrial genomes. The phylogenetic position of the Ammotragus relative to twelve other mammalian species was assessed based on protein-coding sequences. A goat-aoudad split of 9.9–8.9 MYBP has been estimated, whereas the divergence ancestor/caprines was dated at 12.1–10.8 MYBP.