How were the organelle reference sequences chosen?

Complete organelle genomes are picked up by our automatic processing from DDBJ/GenBank/EMBL. We currently select only one organelle reference sequence per organism. If more than one complete organelle genome has been sequenced from an organism, we select as the reference sequence the most complete, accurate sequence. At this time some complete genomes may lack the complete D-loop. A note is added to these genomes.

The date on these reference sequences is more recent than that on the original record. Why?

The date displayed is the date on which the Reference Sequence record was created.

How did you choose the common names for the organisms?

If the NCBI's taxonomy database contains a preferred common name for an organism, that name is displayed. For other organisms, we display either one of the common names (for example, 'donkey' for Equus asinus), the common name of a parent taxonomic node (for example, 'door snail' for Albinaria coerulea), or a common name chosen by a member of the NCBI's taxonomic staff (for example, 'peregrine falcon' for Falco peregrinus).

Are there any tools on this site that will help me curate the mitochondrial genome I am sequencing?

Yes. You can use Match gene to compare your sequence to other metazoan mitochondrial proteins by taxonomic grouping. In addition, the Protein Clusters database may be of help in annotating mitochondrial and metazoan and plastid genomes.