Molecular phylogeny of macaques: implications of nucleotide sequences from an 896-base pair region of mitochondrial DNA

Abstract

We determined the nucleotide sequences of an 896-base pair region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 20 primates representing 13 species of macaques, a baboon, and a patas. We compared these sequences and the homologous sequences from four macaques and a human against each other and deduced the phylogenetic relationships of macaques. The results from the phylogenetic analyses revealed five groups among the macaques: (1) Barbary macaque, (2) two species of Sulawesi macaques, (3) Japanese, rhesus, Taiwanese, crab-eating, and stump-tailed macaques, (4) toque, pig-tailed, and lion-tailed macaques, and (5) Assamese and bonnet macaques. The phylogenetic position of Tibetan macaque remains ambiguous as to whether it belongs to the fourth or fifth group. Phylogenetic trees revealed that Barbary macaque diverged first from the other Asian macaques. Subsequently, the four groups of Asian macaques diverged from one another in a relatively short period of time. Within each group, most of the species diverged in a relatively short period of time following the divergence of the groups. Assuming that the Asian macaques diverged from the outgroup Barbary macaque three million years ago (MYA), the divergence times among groups of Asian macaques were estimated at 2.1-2.5 MYA and within groups at 1.4-2.2 MYA. The intraspecific nucleotide diversity observed among three rhesus macaques was so large that they did not form a monophyletic cluster in the phylogenetic trees. Instead, one of them formed a cluster with Japanese and Taiwanese macaques, whereas the other two formed a separate cluster. This implies that either polymorphisms of mtDNA sequences that existed before the divergence of these three species (ca. 700,000 years ago) have been retained in rhesus macaques or introgression has occurred among the three species.

A monkey's tale: The origin of Plasmodium vivax as a human malaria parasite

“…We assumed only that the parasite radiation took place together with the radiation and͞or population expansions of the major macaque lineages because we expected that a diverse and abundant fauna of hosts is a requirement for the differentiation of malarial parasites in sympatry. These time frames are supported by (i) fossil and molecular phylogenetic studies on macaques suggesting these time frames as the periods when the group became diverse and abundant (21,34), and (ii) there was a high correlation between the distributions of the genus Homo and Macaca during this time frame (21). All of the sequences reported in this study are deposited in the GenBank database with accession nos.…”

Morphometrical comparison between Indian- and Chinese-derived rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

“…Analysis of the nucleotide sequence of mitochondrial DNA has shown that the rhesus is a paraphyletic species (Hayasaka et al, 1996). One of Hayasaka et al's (1996) rhesus subjects (probably from India) clustered with the Japanese and Taiwanese macaques, and then the other two subjects (origins not specified) clustered with that cluster. Similar results have been reported by other researchers (e.g.…”

“…Using tail length, Fooden (2000) classified living rhesus macaques (hereafter rhesuses) into three major groups: the eastern group, consisting of rhesuses in China and neighboring countries; the western group, consisting of those in India and its vicinity; and the southern group, consisting of those in the Indochinese peninsula. Although various divergence times, ranging from about 20 ka to 1.4 Ma, between the rhesus groups have been estimated from morphological and molecular evidence (Nozawa et al, 1977;Zhang and Shi, 1993;Hayasaka et al, 1996;Morales and Melnick, 1998;Fooden, 2000;Tosi et al, 2000Tosi et al, , 2003, exact phylogenetic relationships have yet to be elucidated.…”

Unprecedented Polymorphism of Mhc-DRB Region Configurations in Rhesus Macaques

“…An explanation would be that the older a species is, the more complex the haplotype organization may be. The modern human species is considered to be Ͻ250,000 years old, whereas rhesus macaques diverged from other macaque species Ͼ700,000 years ago (41,42). Based on these data, the time period to generate different -DRB region configurations was 3 times as long for the rhesus macaques as for humans.…”