Complete mitochondrial genomes of the white-browed piculet (Sasia ochracea, Picidae) and pale-billed woodpecker (Campephilus guatemalensis, Picidae).

The mitochondrial genome of the white-browed piculet Sasia ochracea (Piciformes, Picidae) and the pale-billed woodpecker Campephilus guatemalensis (Piciformes, Picidae) were sequenced using a mixed strategy of Sanger and next-generation sequencing methods. The size of the circular mitochondrial genomes were 16 908 and 16 856 bp, respectively, and include 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer tRNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs, a control region and a reduced pseudo control region. The functional control region was located between the tRNAThr and tRNAPro, as found in the two other Piciformes for which complete mtDNA data are available. The length of the pseudo-control region in the white-browed piculet (103 bp) and pale-billed woodpecker (87 bp) is similar to the size of that region in Dryocopus pileatus (60 bp) and much shorter that the length of this region in Pteroglossus azara (1493 bp), suggesting that size reduction occurred before the last common ancestor of the piculets and woodpeckers.