Phylogeny of Muntiacus (Cervidae) based on mitochondrial DNA restriction maps

Mitochondrial DNA restriction maps for 12 restriction enzymes of four species of muntjacs-Indian muntjac (M. muntjak), Gongshan muntjac (M. gongshanensis), black muntjac (M. crinifrons), and Chinese muntjac (M. reevesi)-were compared to estimate the phylogenetic relationships among them. Phylogenetic trees were constructed by both distance and parsimony methods. The two resulting trees share a similar topology, which indicates that the black muntjac and the Gongshan muntjac are closely related, followed by the Chinese muntjac; the Indian muntjac is the sister taxon to all the other muntjacs.

Rapid and parallel chromosomal number reductions in muntjac deer inferred from mitochondrial DNA phylogeny

Muntjac deer (Muntiacinae, Cervidae) are of great interest in evolutionary studies because of their dramatic chromosome variations and recent discoveries of several new species. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of karyotypes of muntjac deer in the context of a phylogeny which is based on 1,844-bp mitochondrial DNA sequences of seven generally recognized species in the muntjac subfamily. The phylogenetic results support the hypothesis that karyotypic evolution in muntjac deer has proceeded via reduction in diploid number. However, the reduction in number is not always linear, i.e., not strictly following the order: 46-->14/13-->8/9-->6/7. For example, Muntiacus muntjak (2n = 6/7) shares a common ancestor with Muntiacus feae (2n = 13/14), which indicates that its karyotype was derived in parallel with M. feae's from an ancestral karyotype of 2n greater than or equal to 13/14. The newly discovered giant muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis) may represent another pa;allel reduction lineage from the ancestral 2n = 46 karyotype. Our phylogenetic results indicate that the giant muntjac is relatively closer to Muntiacus reevesi than to other muntjacs and may be placed in the genus Muntiacus. Analyses of sequence divergence reveal that the rate of change in chromosome number in muntjac deer is one of the fastest in vertebrates. Within the muntjac subfamily, the fastest evolutionary rate is found in the Fea's lineage, in which two species with different karyotypes diverged in around 0.5 Myr.

Mitochondrial molecular clocks and the origin of the major Otocephalan clades (Pisces : Teleostei): A new insight

The Otocephala, a clade including ostariophysan and clupeomorph telcosts, represents about a quarter of total fish species diversity, with about 1000 gencra and more than 7000 species. A series of recent papers have defended that the origin of this clade