Phylogenetic Relationships of Macaques (Cercopithecidae: Macaca) Inferred from Partial Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Cytochrome Oxidase II (COII) gene

Abstract

The molecular phylogenetic relationships among ten species of macaques were assessed using mitochondrialDNA (mtDNA) cytochrome oxidase II (COII) gene. The 27 individuals comprising of ten species within genusMacaca, namely, M. sylvanus, M. mulatta, M. cyclopis, M. arctoides, M. fascicularis, M. assamensis, M.thibetana, M. nemestrina, M. leonina and M. silenus were used in this study. The phylogenetic trees werereconstructed using neighbor-joining (NJ), maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods.Based on our constructed tree, it is suggested that the results from phylogenetic analyses demonstrated fourgroups of macaques. In addition, the trees showed topology of M. sylvanus as a sister clade to all Asianmacaques. The silenus group, which diverged first after M. sylvanus formed their own clade, consisted ofmacaque species M. silenus, M. nemestrina and M. leonina. Meanwhile, the sinica group consisted of M.assamensis and M. thibetana, and the fascicularis group comprised of M. fascicularis, M. arctoides, M. mulattaand M. cyclopis. Our ML tree also showed that M. arctoides is a member of fascicularis group. Our study, alsoindicated that our results neglect the classification based on outer appearances and supports the proposedmolecular work view.