Chen De, Liu Qiong, Chang Jiang, Jiang Aiwu, Zhou Fang, Zhang Yanyun, Zhang Zhengwang
MOE Key Laboratory for Biodiversity Science and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China.
Zookeys. 2016 Jan 20(555):125-36. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.555.6814. eCollection 2016.
The taxonomic status of subspecies has long been debated, especially in conservation biology. Some proposed subspecies must be evolutionarily distinct to be considered conservation units. White-necklaced Partridge (Arborophila gingica) comprises two subspecies, Arborophila gingica gingica and Arborophila gingica guangxiensis. Arborophila gingica guangxiensis, restricted to three isolated small areas in Guangxi, China, with limited population sizes, is a newly discovered subspecies based on recently identified geographic and phenotypic differences between Arborophila gingica gingica; however, evidence is lacking that can effectively identify whether the subspecies is evolutionarily distinct. Here, three mitochondrial DNA segments and four nuclear introns were used to test whether the two subspecies are reciprocally monophyletic, which has been proposed as an objective method to evaluate evolutionary distinctiveness. The results indicate that the two subspecies are genetically divergent and form reciprocal monophyletic groups. Therefore, this study further supports the taxonomic validity and distinctiveness of Arborophila gingica guangxiensis and suggests that this subspecies be considered as a conservation unit.
亚种的分类地位长期以来一直存在争议，尤其是在保护生物学领域。一些人认为，拟议中的亚种在进化上必须具有独特性才能被视为保护单元。白颊山鹧鸪（Arborophila gingica）包括两个亚种，指名亚种（Arborophila gingica gingica）和广西亚种（Arborophila gingica guangxiensis）。广西亚种仅分布于中国广西的三个孤立小区域，种群规模有限，是基于最近在指名亚种之间发现的地理和表型差异而新发现的亚种；然而，缺乏能够有效确定该亚种在进化上是否独特的证据。在此，利用三个线粒体DNA片段和四个核内含子来检验这两个亚种是否互为单系类群，这一方法已被提议作为评估进化独特性的客观方法。结果表明，这两个亚种在基因上存在分歧，并形成了互为单系的类群。因此，本研究进一步支持了广西亚种的分类有效性和独特性，并建议将该亚种视为一个保护单元。
