New aspects of an old discussion - phylogenetic relationships of Ammotragus and Pseudois within the subfamily Caprinae based on comparison of the 12S rDNA sequences

Abstract

A mitochondrial 12S rDNA fragment was amplified by PCR and directly sequenced from eight members of the Caprinae (Ammotragus lervia, Capra aegagrus, Ovis ammon, O. musimon, O. nivicola, O. orientalis, O. vignei and Pseudois nayaur). Multiple alignment of the sequences and genetic distance calculation with the'distance of Taijama and Nei and the algorithms of Saitou and Nei (neighbour-joining - NJ) showed that Pseudois is grouped together with Capra and Ammotragus. All members of the genus Oxis formed a second cluster. Phylogenetic analyses supported these results. NJ-analyses and maximum parsimony (MP) trees did not support the present phylogenetic classification. Bootstrap values of 95% (NJ) and 96% (MP) confirms the grouping of P. nayaur and C. aegagrus. Another clade, O. ammon and O. orientalis supported weakly by bootstrap values of 65% (MP) and 70% (NJ) and the clade O. musimonand O. vignei had bootstrap values of 50% (MP) and 60% (NJ). So the phylogenetic relationship within the genus Oxis is still unsafe. But the parsimony analyses lead to the conclusion that Ammotragus represents an old lineage that diverged from ancestral caprines together with true sheep a long time ago and that both true goats and blue sheep forms represent one evolutionary lineage.