A molecular phylogeny of the hominoid primates as indicated by two-dimensional protein electrophoresis.

A molecular phylogeny for the hominoid primates was constructed by using genetic distances from a survey of 383 radiolabeled fibroblast polypeptides resolved by two-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE). An internally consistent matrix of Nei genetic distances was generated on the basis of variants in electrophoretic position. The derived phylogenetic tree indicated a branching sequence, from oldest to most recent, of cercopithecoids (Macaca fascicularis), gibbon-siamang, orangutan, gorilla, and human-chimpanzee. A cladistic analysis of 240 electrophoretic characters that varied between ape species produced an identical tree. Genetic distance measures obtained by 2DE are largely consistent with those generated by other molecular procedures. In addition, the 2DE data set appears to resolve the human-chimpanzee-gorilla trichotomy in favor of a more recent association of chimpanzees and humans.