Phylogeny of bovine species based on AFLP fingerprinting

J. B. Buntjer, M. Otsen, I. J. Nijman, M.T.R. Kuiper, J. A. Lenstra*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    The Bovini species comprise both domestic and wild cattle species. Published phylogenies of this tribe based on mitochondrial DNA contain anomalies, while nuclear sequences show only low variation. We have used amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) fingerprinting in order to detect variation in loci distributed over the nuclear genome. Computer-assisted scoring of electrophoretic fingerprinting patterns yielded 361 markers, which provided sufficient redundancy to suppress stochastic effects of intraspecies polymorphisms and length homoplasies (comigration of nonhomologous fragments). Tree reconstructions reveal three clusters: African buffalo with water buffalo, ox with zebu, and bison with wisent. Similarity values suggest a clustering of gaur and banteng, but bifurcating clustering algorithms did not assign consistent positions to these species and yak. We propose that because of shared polymorphisms and reticulations, tree topologies are only partially adequate to represent the phylogeny of the Bovini. Principal-coordinate analysis positions zebu between a gaudbanteng cluster and taurine cattle. This correlates with the region of origin of these species and suggests that genomic distances between the cattle species have been influenced by genetic exchange between neighbouring ancestral populations.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)46-51
    Number of pages6
    JournalHeredity
    Volume88
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2002

    Keywords

    • AFLP
    • Bovini
    • Phylogeny
    • Reticulation

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