A mitochondrial cytochrome b phylogeny confirms the paraphyly of the Dendromurinae Alston, 1896 (Muridae, Rodentia) (original) (raw)

1996

Abstract

The subfamily Dendromurinae has occupied various systematic positions in the different classifications of the Muroidea and different genera have been attributed to this taxon (e.g. Lindsay 1988, Chaline et al. 1977). For example, the genus Deomys (Thomas, 1888), originally believed to be a link between the cricetid and murid rodents, has subsequently been attributed to the Dendromurinae. Alston, 1896 ; to its own subfamily Deomyinae Ellerma'n, 1941, before being reallocated to the Dendrom:urinae by Rosevear (1969) and Meester and Setzer (1971), (see also Musser and Carleton 1993). A recent study using morphological and DNA-DNA hybridisation data concludes that the Dendromurinae are paraphyletic and'that the status of this subfamily. has to be revised (Denys et al. 1995). The present study evaluates this hypothesis by studying a similar set of taxa with another molecular marker. We compare an UPGMA-tree based upon DNA-DNA hybridisation data (Denys et al. 1995) with 'a'mitochondrial DNA phylogeny based upon parsimony an'alyses of a portion of the cytOchrome b gene (cyt b). DNA was isolated from tissue samples of the collections of the department of biology of the University of Antwerp (RUCA). This study concerns 10 spedes representing the Murinae Illiger, 1815, Cricetomyinae Roberts, 1951, Dendromurinae Alston, 1896 and Gerbillinae Gray, 1825. We sequenced a portion of the mitochondrial cyt b gene of 2 specimens/species of Arvicanthis nairobae J.A. Allen, 1909; Cricetomys gambianus Waterhouse, 1840; Lophuromys flavopunctatus Thomlls, 1888; Deomys ferrugineus Thomas, 1888 and one specimen/species of Steatomys krebsii Peters, 1852 ; Steatomys pratensis Peters, 1846 ; Tatera valida (Bocage, 1890) ; Taterillus gracilis (Thomas, 1892); Hybomys univittatus (Peters, 1876) and, one specimen of an Hybomys species to be described yet. ,PCR-reactions and DNA sequencing protocols have been described elsewhere (Verheyen et al. 1995). The primers used to amplify a 402 bp long cyt b gene segment were L13724 (5'-cgaagcttgatatgaaaaaccatcgttg-3') and H14139 (5'-aaactgcagcccctcagaatgatatttgtcctca-3', Kocher et al. 1989). The cyt b sequences (see annex) as well as information about the origin of the used specimens are available upon request.

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