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Biochemical Genetics (v.40, #5-6)

A Spatial Aspect on Mitochondrial DNA Genealogy in Apodemus peninsulae from East Asia by Keiko Serizawa; Hitoshi Suzuki; Masahiro A. Iwasa; Kimiyuki Tsuchiya; Marina V. Pavlenko; Irina V. Kartavtseva; Galina N. Chelomina; Nikolai E. Dokuchaev; Sang-Hoon Han (pp. 149-161).

Apodemus peninsulae is a field mouse that inhabits the broad-leafed forests of temperate Eurasia. We examined the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene in 57 individuals of A. peninsulae from northeastern Asia, including Siberia, Primorye, Magadan region, Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the Korean Peninsula. The genealogy of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in A. peninsulae was shown to have substantial geographic affinity, suggesting geographic architecture of northeastern Asia, including the islands of Sakhalin and Hokkaido, played important roles on the cladogenesis. Taking into account the presence of region-specific anciently divergent mtDNA types, three parts of the regions of Primorye, Siberia, and the Korean Peninsula can be denoted as refugia for A. peninsulae during the substantial period of the Quaternary glacial ages. Among the geographic regions examined, Primorye is likely to be the most influential one, from which the mtDNA is thought to have migrated to the neighboring regions of Sakhalin, Hokkaido, the Magadan region, and Siberia during the evolution of this species.

Keywords: field mice; Apodemus peninsulae ; mitochondrial DNA; cyt b ; molecular phylogeny; Far East Asia

The Origin and Genetic Diversity of Chinese Native Chicken Breeds by Dong Niu; Yan Fu; Jing Luo; Hui Ruan; Xu-Ping Yu; Gong Chen; Ya-Ping Zhang (pp. 163-174).

The first 539 bases of mitochondrial DNA D-loop region of six Chinese native chicken breeds (Gallus gallus domesticus) were sequenced and compared to those of the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), the gray junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii), the green junglefowl (Gallus varius) and Lafayette's junglefowl (Gallus lafayettei) reported in GenBank, and the phylogenetic trees for the chickens were constructed based on the D-loop sequences. The results showed that the four species of the genus Gallus had great differences among each other, the G. g. domesticus was closest to the red junglefowl in Thailand and its adjacent regions, suggesting the Chinese domestic fowl probably originated from the red junglefowl in these regions. The two subs pecies of Thailand, G. g. gallus and G. g. spadiceus, should belong to one subspecies because of their resemblance. In the case of native breeds, there existed a great difference between the egg breeds and general purpose breeds, which suggested different maternal origins of the two types.

Keywords: Chinese native chicken breeds; junglefowl; mitochondrial D-loop sequence; genetic diversity

Genetic Diversity of Cheju Horses (Equus caballus) Determined by Using Mitochondrial DNA D-loop Polymorphism by Y. H. Yang; K. I. Kim; E. G. Cothran; A. R. Flannery (pp. 175-186).

We used sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop (968 bp excluding the tandem repeat region) to determine genetic diversity of horses inhabiting Cheju (a southern island of Korea). Seventeen haplotypes with frequencies from 1.5 to 21.5% were found among 65 Cheju horse samples. Genetic diversity (h) of the 17 haplotypes was calculated to be 0.91, indicating that the extant Cheju horse population consists of diverse genetic groups in their maternal lineage. Phylogenetic analysis showed that 17 types of Cheju (D-loop sequences determined), 5 Mongolian, 6 Arabian, 3 Belgian, 2 Tsushima, 2 Yunnan, 1 Przewalskii, and 3 Thoroughbred horses (published sequences for the latter seven breeds) showed that Cheju horses were distributed into many different clusters in the tree. Four Mongolian horses clustered with separate Cheju horse groups, showing that some Cheju horses are clearly of Mongolian origin. The analysis of partial sequences (284 bp) of the D-loop of 109 horses showed that Thoroughbred, Mongolian, Lipizzan, and Arabian breeds are as diverse as Cheju horses. Our data together with others' suggest that most horse breeds tested with reasonably sufficient numbers of samples are diverse in their maternal lineages and also are not uniquely different from each other.

Keywords: polymorphism; D-loop; mitochondrial DNA; horses

Polymorphism in Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of Yak (Bos grunniens) by Zheng-Chao Tu; Huai Qiu; Ya-Ping Zhang (pp. 187-193).

Mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNA) from 21 yaks (Bos grunniens) were assayed for restriction fragment length polymorphisms by using 20 restriction endonucleases, six of which (AvaI, AvaII, BglII, EcoRI, HindIII, and HpaI) detected polymorphism. Four different mtDNA haplotypes were identified. Combining this with previous reports about the mtDNA RFLPs of B. indicus and B. taurus, there are obvious differences in mtDNA polymorphism between the yak and other Bos species. We estimated that the divergence times between the ancestor of B. grunniens and the ancestor of B. taurus or B. indicus were about 1.2–2.2 and 1.01–2.02 million years ago, respectively.

Keywords: Yak; mitochondrial DNA; restriction fragment length polymorphism; genetic diversity

Note: A Preliminary Study on Conservation Genetics of an Endangered Orchid (Paphiopedilum micranthum) from Southwestern China by Ang Li; Yi-bo Luo; Song Ge (pp. 195-201).

Note: Genetic Diversity and Divergence of Some Swiss Brown Cattle Herds in Turkey by Mehmet Ali Yildiz; Handan Çamdeviren; Ceyhan Özbeyaz (pp. 203-207).

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Biochemical Genetics (v.40, #5-6)

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Biochemical Genetics (v.40, #5-6)