Phylogenetic Study of Complete Cytochrome b Genes in Musk Deer (Genus Moschus) Using Museum Samples

doi:10.1006/mpev.1999.0616

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

Volume 12, Issue 3, August 1999, Pages 241-249

https://doi.org/10.1006/mpev.1999.0616 Get rights and content

Abstract

As an endangered animal group, musk deer (genus Moschus) are not only a great concern of wildlife conservation, but also of special interest to evolutionary studies due to long-standing arguments on the taxonomic and phylogenetic associations in this group. Using museum samples, we sequenced complete mitochondrial cytochrome b genes (1140 bp) of all suggested species of musk deer in order to reconstruct their phylogenetic history through molecular information. Our results showed that the cytochrome b gene tree is rather robust and concurred for all the algorithms employed (parsimony, maximum likelihood, and distance methods). Further, the relative rate test indicated a constant sequence substitution rate among all the species, permitting the dating of divergence events by molecular clock. According to the molecular topology, M. moschiferus branched off the earliest from a common ancestor of musk deer (about 700,000 years ago); then followed the bifurcation forming the M. berezovskii lineage and the lineage clustering M. fuscus, M. chrysogaster, and M. leucogaster (around 370,000 years before present). Interestingly, the most recent speciation event in musk deer happened rather recently (140,000 years ago), which might have resulted from the diversified habitats and geographic barriers in southwest China caused by gigantic movements of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau in history. Combining the data of current distributions, fossil records, and molecular data of this study, we suggest that the historical dispersion of musk deer might be from north to south in China. Additionally, in our further analyses involving other pecora species, musk deer was strongly supported as a monophyletic group and a valid family in Artiodactyla, closely related to Cervidae.

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Regular ArticlePhylogenetic Study of Complete Cytochrome b Genes in Musk Deer (Genus Moschus) Using Museum Samples

Abstract

J. Mol. Biol.

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Mitochondrial DNA and the evolutionary genetics of higher animals

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London. B

Mitochondrial diversity and the origins of African and European cattle

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA

Mitochondrial DNA sequences of primates: Tempo and mode of evolution

J. Mol. Evol.

Molecular phylogeny based on the κ-casein and cytochrome b sequences in the mammalian suborder Ruminantia