MONOPHYLETIC ORIGIN AND UNIQUE DISPERSAL PATTERNS OF DOMESTIC-FOWLS

With the aim of elucidating in greater detail the genealogical origin of the present domestic fowls of the world, we have determined mtDNA s equences of the D-loop regions for a total of 21 birds, of which 12 sa mples belong to red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) comprising three subspe cies (six Gallus gallus gallus, three Gallus gallus spadiceus, and thr ee Gallus gallus bankiva) and nine represent diverse domestic breeds ( Gallus gallus domesticus). We also sequenced four green junglefowl (Ga llus varius), two Lafayette's Junglefowl (Gallus lafayettei), and one grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii), We then constructed a phylogeneti c tree for these birds by the use of nucleotide sequences, choosing th e Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) as an outgroup, We found that a continental population of G. g. gallus was the real matriarchi c origin of all the domestic poultries examined in this study, It is a lso of particular interest that there were no discernible differences among G. gallus subspecies; G. g. bankiva was a notable exception, Thi s was because G. g. spadiceus and a continental population of G. g. ga llus formed a single cluster in the phylogenetic tree, G. g. bankiva, on the other hand, was a distinct entity, thus deserving its subspecie s status, It implies that a continental population of G. g. gallus suf ficed as the monophyletic ancestor of all domestic breeds, We also dis cussed a possible significance of the initial dispersal pattern of the present domestic fowls, using the phylogenetic tree.