The longest ultraconserved sequences and evolution of vertebrate mitochondrial genomes

We compared 753 genomes of bacteria, archaea, and mitochondria (more than 540 M data) and found four unique ultraconserved sequences in 352 vertebrate mitochondrial genomes which are the longest or second longest or third longest ultracon- served subsequences in the vertebrate mitochondrial genomes, their lengths are approximate to those of small RNA. Surprisingly, the classification and evolu- tion relationship among some high-level categories of animals can be clearly reflected by their regularity of occurrence; moreover, these findings gave rise to some new ideas of evolution of mitochondria and living beings. For instance, the variations in mito- chondrial genomes of animals may help clarify the evolution relationship between Aves and Reptile, and understand the fact that the origin of mitochondrion is at least not a simple copy of genomes of lower living things such as bacteria and archaea.