Unit of Human Biology and Genetics, Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2010 May;55(2):454-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2010.01.032. Epub 2010 Feb 4.
Phylogenetic relationships of gibbons (4 genera, 12 species) deduced from short/partial mitochondrial DNA sequences were with low resolution and inconsistent. Their divergence over the short period of time may require longer sequences for the higher resolution. To solve the problems, we newly sequenced the whole mitochondrial genome of Hylobates agilis, Hylobates pileatus, Nomascus sp. and Symphalangus syndactylus. A highly resolved phylogenetic tree was obtained for the mitochondrial genome in the neighbor-joining, maximum-parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses. The divergence dates of mitochondrial genome were estimated by Bayesian method; Nomascus and the other two genera to 8.0 million years ago (MYA), Symphalangus and Hylobates to 7.0 MYA, Hylobates pileatus and the other two Hylobates species to 3.9 MYA and Hylobates lar and Hylobates agilis to 3.3 MYA. Our results support the generic rank of Nomascus, Symphalangus and Hylobates, and proposed a new scenario that the Hylobates gibbons diverged in the Pliocene. This study shows the potential of the whole mitochondrial genome analyses to reveal detailed divergence history of gibbons.
从短/部分线粒体 DNA 序列推断的长臂猿（4 属，12 种）的系统发育关系分辨率低且不一致。它们在短时间内的分化可能需要更长的序列来提高分辨率。为了解决这些问题，我们新测序了合趾猿、白掌长臂猿、白眉长臂猿和银白长臂猿的整个线粒体基因组。通过邻接法、最大简约法和最大似然法对线粒体基因组进行了高度解析的系统发育树分析。通过贝叶斯方法估计了线粒体基因组的分歧日期；诺马（Nomascus）和另外两个属为 800 万年前（MYA），合趾猿和另外两个长臂猿属为 700 万年前，白掌长臂猿和另外两个白掌长臂猿种为 390 万年前，以及白颊长臂猿和银白长臂猿为 330 万年前。我们的结果支持了诺马（Nomascus）、合趾猿和白掌长臂猿的属级分类，提出了一个新的情景，即长臂猿在更新世发生了分化。本研究表明，整个线粒体基因组分析具有揭示长臂猿详细分化历史的潜力。
