Dn. Janczewski et al., MOLECULAR EVOLUTION OF MITOCHONDRIAL-12S RNA AND CYTOCHROME-B SEQUENCES IN THE PANTHERINE LINEAGE OF FELIDAE, Molecular biology and evolution, 12(4), 1995, pp. 690-707
DNA sequence comparisons of two mitochondrial DNA genes were used to i
nfer phylogenetic relationships among 17 Felidae species, notably 15 i
n the previously described pantherine lineage. The polymerase chain re
action (PCR) was used to generate sequences of 358 base pairs of the m
itochondrial 12S RNA gene and 289 base pairs of the cytochrome b prote
in coding gene. DNA sequences were compared within and between 17 feli
d and five nonfelid carnivore species. Evolutionary trees were constru
cted using phenetic, cladistic, and maximum likelihood algorithms. The
combined results suggested several phylogenetic relationships includi
ng (1) the recognition of a recently evolved monophyletic genus Panthe
ra consisting of Panthera lee, P. pardus, P. onca, P. uncia, P. tigris
, and Neofelis nebulosa; (2) the recent common ancestry of Acinonyx ju
batus, the African cheetah, and Puma concolor, the American puma; and
(3 ) two golden cat species, Profelis temmincki and Profelis aurata, a
re not sister species, and the latter is strongly associated with Cara
cal caracal. These data add to the growing database of vertebrate mtDN
A sequences and, given the relatively recent divergence among the feli
ds represented here (1-10 Myr), allow 12S and cytochrome b sequence ev
olution to be addressed over a time scale different from those address
ed in most work on vertebrate mtDNA.