The Journal of Heredity 2002:93(1)
© 2002 The American Genetic Association 93:9-18
Mitochondrial Sequence Diversity Within a Subspecies of Savanna Monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) Is Similar to That Between Subspecies
From the Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University (Shimada and Shotake), and Tsukuba Primate Center for Medical Science (Terao).
Address correspondence to Makoto K. Shimada, Division of Population Genetics, National Institute of Genetics, Yata 1777, Mishima 411-8540, Japan, or e-mail: mshimada{at}lab.nig.ac.jp.
Cercopithecus aethiops can be classified into four subspecies by morphology and by geographic distribution. However, the phylogenetic relationship between these subspecies is unclear. We previously found five distinct haplogroups of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in the subspecies C. aethiops aethiops at the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) level, and found that those haplogroups are parapatrically distributed in their habitat. To determine the relationship between subspeciation and haplogroup formation in a subspecies, we compared mtDNA control region and 12S rRNA gene sequences (approximately 700 bp) in C. a. aethiops, two other subspecies of C. aethiops, and two species of Cercopithecus. The diversity between haplogroups in C. a. aethiops was almost the same as that between subspecies. This similar level of diversification between and within haplogroups may explain why a previously obtained mtDNA tree did not show monophyletic branching according to subspecies.