Evaluation of Phylogenetic Relationships of Antilopini And
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Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity 1(1): 1-11 (2017) by Arak University, Iran (http://jwb.araku.ac.ir/) Research Article DOI: 10.22120/jwb.2017.26903 Evaluation of phylogenetic relationships of Antilopini and Oreotragini tribes (Bovidae: Artiodactyla) based on complete mitochondrial genomes using these genomes, we can meticulously Taghi Ghassemi-Khademi reconstruct and modify the animal classification. Iranian academic center for education, culture Keywords: Antilopinae, phylogeny, mtDNA, and research (ACECR), Ardabil, Iran. e-mail: biosystematics, taxonomy. [email protected] Received: 2 July 2017 / Revised: 5 August 2017 / Accepted: 13 August 2017 / Published online: 17 August 2017. Ministry of Introduction Sciences, Research and Technology, Arak University, Iran. Taxonomically, Antilopes belongs to Kingdom: Animalia (metazoan), Phylum: Chordata, Abstract Subphylum: Vertebrata, Class: Mammalia, Sub- class: Theria, Super- order: Eutheria (Placenta), In this research, phylogenetic relationships of 24 Order: Artiodactyla, Suborder: Ruminantia, species from the subfamily Antilopinae were Family: Bovidae, Sub-family: Antilopinae, and evaluated using complete mitochondrial tribe: Antilopini (Wilson and Reeder 2005). genomes. The average base composition of mtDNA sequences was 27.8% T, 25.2% C, Based on the traditional and previous 33.7% A, and 13.3% G, showing a strong AT classifications, the subfamily of Antilopinae is bias (61.5%). The phylogenetic trees were comprised of three different tribe and sixteen investigated using the NJ, ME and UPGMA live genera: the tribe Antilopini has eight genera methods and found that they have very identical including Genus Gazella, Genus Antilope, topologies. Overall, consistent with findings of Genus Ammodorcas, Genus Antidorcas, Genus previous studies, the results revealed that the Litocranius, Genus Eudorcas, Genus Nanger, Antilopini tribe has been correctly demarcated. and Genus Procapra. The tribe Saigini has two Also, it was found that the Oreotragini tribe, genera including Genus Saiga and Genus which is represented by a single species Pantholops. This genus sometimes is classified (Oreotragus oreotragus), is completely in Caprinae Subfamily. separated from the Antilopini tribe and thus its The tribe Neotragini also has six genera taxonomic position must be reviewed again. In including Dorcatragus, Madoqua, Neotragus, general, the results of this study indicated that Oreotragus, Ourebia, and Raphicerus (Malcolm the complete mitochondrial genomes are very et al. 1997, Wilson and Reeder 2005). The sister useful, powerful, and accurate tools for taxon of Antilopinae subfamily is Bovinae and evaluating the phylogenetic relationships of both groups comprise the artiodactyla family animals and biosystematics studies. Besides, Bovidae (Bärmann et al. 2013). 2 | Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity 1(1): 1-11 (2017) Nowadays, Antilopinae subfamily includes nine antilopes relatives but the new classification tribes, which are very distinct from each other: calls all of them as true Antilopes. The body of Hippotragini, Alcelaphini, Reduncini, true antilopes is not very large. Anatomically, Cephalophini, Neotragini, Oreotragini, they are significantly different from the rams, Aepycerotini, Antilopini, and Caprini (Castelló ewes, wild goats, and goats. They have narrow 2016). Antilopini tribe often referred to as true body and legs with a flat back or slightly raised antelopes and consists true Gazelles (genera bump. In some species, only the males have Eudorcas, Gazella, and Nanger), Procapra antlers while in some others the females also (which appear to be as different from the have very short and fine antlers. The antilopes Gazelles as they are from the dwarf antelopes), are limited in semi-arid and arid regions, Saiga, and dwarf antelopes (Dorcatragus, herbaceous steppes, or areas with trees and Madoqua, Ourebia, and Raphicerus). Also, the shrubs. Their food includes forage, trees leaves Oreotragini tribe, represented by one living and shrubs, buds and young seedlings. Many genus, the klipspringer (Oreotragus differences are seen in antilopes regarding oreotragus), are small, stocky antelopes, with appearance as well as the habitat selection females weighing more than and being slightly (Ghassemi-Khademi 2014). longer than males (Castelló 2016). In total, the gazelles, blackbucks, springboks, Recently Hassanin et al. (2012) have introduced gerenuks, dibatags, and Central Asian gazelles new names for four subtribes for Antilopini are often referred to as ‘true Antilopes’, and are (gazelles and their allies) tribe: Antilopina, usually classified as the only representatives of based on the genus Antilope, consists of Antilope the Antilopinae. True antelopes occur in much cervicapra, Gazella spp., Nanger spp., of Asia and Africa, with the highest Eudorcas spp., Antidorcas marsupialis, concentration of species occurring in East Africa Ammodorcas clarkei, Litocranius walleri, and in Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, and Saiga tatarica; Procaprina, based on the genus Tanzania (Wilson and Reeder 2005). Procapra, includes the three living Procapra Gazelles are medium-sized ungulates with a fine species; Ourebina, based on the genus Ourebia, body that mostly live in the deserts. They have is monotypic and includes only O. ourebi; and big eyes and their snouts are hairy up to their Raphicerina, based on the genus Raphicerus, nostrils. In the animal face, there is a middle includes Raphicerus spp., Dorcatragus dark band from the snout to the forehead and a megalotis, and Madoqua spp. (Bärmann et al. smaller dark bar extends in each side of the face 2013). Therefore, based on new classifications, from the snout to the eyes front. The body color the Antilopinae subfamily has several tribes that in the back is generally brownish-gray or one of them is Antilopini tribe with four reddish and white in the ventral part (Ghassemi- subtribes and Oreotragini is a separate tribe in Khademi 2013). Regarding apparent shape, the this subfamily (Bärmann et al. 2013). The tribe antilopes are divided into four groups: Neotraginiis is presently known to be polyphyletic, as Neotragus and Oreotragus are 1. Gazelle-like antilopes: Most of the antilopes not closely related to Antelopes (Bärmann et al. species are in this group, and the studied species 2013). in this paper are considered as members of this group. In the hunting and itineraries literature, antilopes have been listed as two different animals; in the 2. Bovid-like antilopes: They are similar to old classifications, the gazelles are considered as bovine in appearance, and mostly live in Africa. 3 | Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity 1(1): 1-11 (2017) 3. Horse-like antilopes: They are like a horse in provide most accurate outcomes) between the appearance, all living in arid and desert areas of genera belonging to this subfamily can be an Africa. effective step in planning for the conservation and enhancement of multiplication of these 4. Goat-like antilopes: The group members are animals in the world. Particularly, most animal like goats and ibexes in appearance, and live in species belonging to this subfamily today are in relatively rocky areas (Sheikhjabbari 2003). serious danger of extinction and declining of the Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a circular population all over the world (Ghassemi- DNA of 15000-20000 bp and is conserved in Khademi 2014). vertebrate animals. This genome is highly variable in structure, content, organization, and quality of genes expression in the different of Material and methods animals (Zhang and Zhang 2013). The All complete mitochondrial genome sequences mitochondrial genome is popular for belonged to Antilopinae subfamily were evolutionary and phylogenetic studies because downloaded (n=24) from NCBI (Table 1). of the relative simplicity of extraction and Sequences were aligned with Mega.6 (Tamura simple sequence organization, maternal et al. 2013) using the Clustral W alignment inheritance, free of recombination in most cases method. Also, the corresponding gene and rapid rate of sequence divergence sequences of Tragelaphus strepsiceros were (Katouzian and Rajabi-Maham 2013). used as an outgroup in this analysis. Several mitochondrial genomes are used for The evolutionary history was inferred using the estimating the phylogenetic relationships among Neighbor-Joining method (Saitou and Nei animal taxa and molecular phylogenetic 1987). The optimal tree was identified with the evolution analysis. Overall, using several sum of branch length = 1.16304401. The genomes of mtDNA is better than using the percentage of replicate trees, in which the single gene for phylogenetic analysis of animals, associated taxa are clustered together in the because multiple sequences (especially bootstrap test (1000 replicates), are shown next complete genome of mtDNA) provide sufficient to the branches (Felsenstein 1985). The information about evolution and of evolutionary evolutionary distances, which were computed process reconstruction (Zhang and Zhang 2013). using the Kimura 2-parameter method (Kimura Although several researchers (Hassanin and 1980). The rate variation among sites was Douzery 1999, Rebholz and Harley 1999, modeled with a gamma distribution (shape Wronski et al. 2010, Manuel et al. 2005, Gatesy parameter = 1). et al. 1997, Groves 2000, Kuznetsova and Evolutionary analyses were conducted in Kholodova 2003, Lei et al. 2003, Marcot 2007, MEGA6 (Tamura et al. 2013). The evolutionary Bärmann et al. 2013), have studied