Molecular Phylogeny of Mitochondrial Cytochrome b and 12S rRNA Sequences in the Felidae: Ocelot and Domestic Cat Lineages

Authors

• Ryuichi Masuda, Hokkaido University - Sapporo, Japan
• Jose V. Lopez, PRI/DynCorpFollow
• Jill Pecon Slattery, National Cancer Institute - Frederick
• Naoya Yuhki, National Cancer Institute - Frederick
• Stephen James O'Brien, National Cancer Institute - FrederickFollow

ORCID

0000-0002-1637-4125; 0000-0001-7353-8301

ResearcherID

F-8809-2011; N-1726-2015

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution

ISSN

1055-7903

Publication Date

12-1996

Keywords

Amino acid sequence, Animals, Base sequence, Carnivora/classification, Carnivora/genetics, Cats/classification, Cats/genetics, Cytochrome b group/classification, Cytochrome b group/genetics, DNA, Molecular evolution, Mitochondria/genetics, Molecular sequence data, Phylogeny, Polymerase chain reaction, RNA/genetics, RNA ribosomal/classification, RNA ribosomal/genetics

Abstract

Molecular phylogeny of the cat family Felidae is derived using two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome b and 12S rRNA. Phylogenetic methods of weighted maximum parsimony and minimum evolution estimated by neighbor-joining are employed to reconstruct topologies among 20 extant felid species. Sequence analyses of 363 bp of cytochrome b and 376 bp of the 12S rRNA genes yielded average pair-wise similarity values between felids ranging from 94 to 99% and from 85 to 99%, respectively. Phylogenetic reconstruction supports more recent, intralineage associations but fails to completely resolve interlineage relationships. Both genes produce a monophyletic group of Felis species but vary in the placement of the pallas cat. The ocelot lineage represents an early divergence within the Felidae, with strong associations between ocelot and margay, Geoffroy's cat and kodkod, and pampas cat and tigrina. Implications of the relative recency of felid evolution, presence of ancestral polymorphisms, and influence of outgroups in placement of the topological root are discussed.

DOI

10.1006/mpev.1996.0085

Volume

6

Issue

3

First Page

351

Last Page

365

Comments

©1996 Academic Press, Inc.

NSUWorks Citation

Masuda, Ryuichi; Jose V. Lopez; Jill Pecon Slattery; Naoya Yuhki; and Stephen James O'Brien. 1996. "Molecular Phylogeny of Mitochondrial Cytochrome b and 12S rRNA Sequences in the Felidae: Ocelot and Domestic Cat Lineages." Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 6, (3): 351-365. doi:10.1006/mpev.1996.0085.