The complete mitogenomes of the two grysbok species: <i>Raphicerus melanotis</i> Thunberg 1811 (Cape grysbok) and <i>Raphicerus sharpei</i> Thomas 1897 (Sharpe’s grysbok)

In this study, we report the novel, complete mitochondrial genomes of two dwarf African antelope species: <i>Raphicerus melanotis</i> (Cape grysbok) and <i>R. sharpei</i> (Sharpe’s grysbok). The circular mitogenomes were 16,384 and 16,392 base pairs in length, respectively, and each contained the expected 37 genes typically found in mammalian mitogenomes. The maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis placed <i>R. sharpei</i> as the sister lineage to <i>R. campestris</i>, known as steenbok, which is the only other member of the <i>Raphicerus</i> genus, with 83% bootstrap support, to the exclusion of <i>R. melanotis</i> (100% bootstrap support). This corroborated previous findings based on the cytochrome <i>b</i> gene only. The number of base differences per site between the coding regions of the mitogenomes of <i>R. sharpei</i> and <i>R. campestris</i> was 0.0519, while it was 0.0701 between <i>R. sharpei</i> and <i>R. melanotis</i> and 0.0709 between <i>R. melanotis</i> and <i>R. campestris</i>. The novel grysbok mitogenomes will be valuable resources in future phylogenetic analyses, and phylogeographic and conservation genetics studies.