Molecular phylogeny and taxonomic status of the red goral by cyt b gene analyses

Abstract

The phylogeny and taxonomic status of the red goral (Naemorhedus baileyi) is still unclear. We sequenced the complete cyt b (1140bp) gene extracted from hair samples from three animals from the Shanghai Zoo, and compared them with thirty sequences of Naemorhedus downloaded from GenBank. Our results show three distinct lineages within Naemorhedus. Two closely related N. baileyi haplotypes were found. They belong to the most basal group within Naemorhedus together with N. griseus haplotype 2 from Thailand, which is a sequence likely to be misidentified.