Large Sequence Divergence Among Mitochondrial DNA Genotypes Within Populations of Eastern African Black-Backed Jackals

Authors

• Robert K. Wayne, University of California Los Angeles
• A. Meyer, University of California Berkeley
• N. Lehman, University of California Los Angeles
• B. Van Valkenburgh, University of California Los Angeles
• P. W. Kat, National Museums of Kenya
• T. K. Fuller, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
• D. Girman, University of California Los Angeles
• Stephen J. O'Brien, National Cancer Institute at FrederickFollow

ORCID

0000-0001-7353-8301

ResearcherID

N-1726-2015

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

ISSN

1091-6490

Publication Date

3-1-1990

Keywords

Canidae, Genetic variability, Intraspecific phylogeny

Abstract

In discussions about the relative rate of molecular evolution, intraspecific variability in rate is rarely considered. An underlying assumption is that intraspecific sequence differences are small, and thus variations in rate would be difficult to detect or would not affect comparisons among distantly related taxa. However, several studies on mammalian mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) have revealed considerable intraspecific sequence divergence. In this report, we test for differences in the rate of intraspecific evolution by comparing mtDNA sequences, as inferred from restriction site polymorphisms and direct sequencing, between mtDNA genotypes of the eastern African black-backed jackal, Canis mesomelas elongae, and those of two other sympatric jackal species. Our results are unusual for several reasons. First, mtDNA sequence divergence within several contiguous blackbacked jackal populations is large (8.0%). Previous intraspecific studies of terrestrial mammals have generally found values of

Volume

87

Issue

5

First Page

1772

Last Page

1776

Additional Comments

Grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and the Keck Fellowship.

NSUWorks Citation

Wayne, Robert K.; A. Meyer; N. Lehman; B. Van Valkenburgh; P. W. Kat; T. K. Fuller; D. Girman; and Stephen J. O'Brien. 1990. "Large Sequence Divergence Among Mitochondrial DNA Genotypes Within Populations of Eastern African Black-Backed Jackals." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 87, (5): 1772-1776. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cnso_bio_facarticles/239