Decoding the Complete Mitogenome of <italic>Odorrana nasuta</italic> (Anura: Ranidae): Phylogenetic Insights and Mitogenome Rearrangement Revealed via a Novel Genome Capture Method

<p indent="0mm">Mitogenomes have been widely used in phylogenetic and taxonomic research, due to their maternal inheritance, accelerated evolutionary rates, compact circular structure, and the absence of introns. Although their utility is well-established, efficient mitogenome sequencing still poses a challenge for evolutionary studies. Here, we presented a novel hybridization capture protocol that enables high-fidelity sequencing of the complete mitogenome <sc>(16 535 bp)</sc> of <italic>Odorrana nasuta</italic>. This genome exhibits typical anuran characteristics, including an A + T nucleotide bias (56.37%) and conserved gene composition. Notably, we identified a lineage-specific <italic>trnH</italic> transposition event that reorganizes the typical gene order into a unique <italic> trnH</italic>-<italic>trnL1</italic>-<italic>trnT</italic>-<italic>trnP</italic> -<italic>trnF</italic> cluster, which may be a potential synapomorphic trait for the genus <italic>Odorrana</italic>. Phylogenetic reconstruction using 13 protein-coding genes from 59 anuran species strongly supported the monophyly of Ranidae and its constituent genera (<italic>Odorrana</italic>, <italic>Rana</italic> , <italic>Lithobates</italic>, <italic>Amolops</italic>, <italic>Pelophylax</italic> , <italic>Glandirana</italic>), yet reveals the incongruence in the placement of <italic> Hylarana</italic>. The conflicting topologies observed for <italic>Hylarana</italic> and <italic>Glandirana</italic> across different studies highlight critical methodological limitations, including taxonomic sampling biases and data type dependency, which collectively compromise phylogenetic resolution. By integrating mitogenomic structure signatures with sequence-based phylogenies, this work advances our understanding of the systematics within <italic>Odorrana</italic> and highlights the need of multi-locus genomic datasets for resolving deep phylogenetic conflicts within Ranidae.