COMPARISON BETWEEN THE COMPLETE MITOCHONDRIAL-DNA SEQUENCES OF HOMO AND THE COMMON CHIMPANZEE BASED ON NONCHIMERIC SEQUENCES

The complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecules of Homo and of the co mmon chimpanzee were sequenced. Each sequence was established from tis sue of one individual and thus nonchimeric. Both sequences were assemb led in their entirety from natural (not PCR amplified) clones. Compari son with sequences in the literature identified the chimpanzee specime n as Pan troglodytes verus, the West African variety of the species. T he nucleotide difference between the complete human and chimpanzee seq uences is 8.9%. The difference between the control regions of the two sequences is 13.9% and that between the remaining portions of the sequ ences 8.5%. The mean amino acid difference between the inferred produc ts of the 13 peptide-coding genes is 4.4%. Sequences of the complete c ontrol regions, the complete 12S rRNA genes, the complete cytochrome b genes, and portions of the NADH4 and NADH5 genes of two other chimpan zee specimens showed that they were similar but strikingly different f rom the same regions of the completely sequenced molecule from Pan tro glodytes verus. The two specimens were identified as Pan troglodytes t roglodytes, the Central African variety of the common chimpanzee.