Evolution of the mitochondrial DNA control region in the mbuna (Cichlidae) species flock of lake Malawi, East Africa |
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Authors: | Alex Parker Irv Kornfield |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Zoology, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA, US |
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Abstract: | Considerable controversy has surrounded the application of mitochondrial DNA data to reconstruction of evolutionary relationships
among the endemic cichlids of Lake Malawi. Central to this debate has been the issue of whether lineage sorting is complete,
and thus whether these data actually reflect species phylogeny, or simply gene genealogy. Review of all mtDNA control region
sequences available for members of one monophyletic subset of this species flock, the Malawi rockfishes, or mbuna, strongly indicates that lineage sorting is incomplete: Character-based analyses of these sequences reconstruct gene, not
species, interrelationships. Analysis of the pattern of nucleotide substitutions differentiating these mtDNA alleles suggests
that pyrimidine residues undergo transition substitutions more often than do purines. Estimation of the magnitude of derived
sequence differentiation in light of the reconstructed gene genealogy suggests that the mbuna may be of considerably more recent vintage than previous molecular characterizations have indicated.
Received: 6 April 1996 / Accepted: 3 March 1997 |
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Keywords: | :mbuna species — Lake Malawi — Mitochondrial DNA control region |
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