The genetic link between the Chinese bamboo partridge (Bambusicola thoracica) and the chicken and junglefowls of the genus Gallus.

Abstract

Further comparison of mitochondrial control-region DNA base sequences of 16 avian species belonging to the subfamily Phasianinae revealed the following: (i) Generalized perdicine birds (quails and partridges) are of ancient lineages. Even the closest pair, the common quail (Coturnix coturnixjaponica) and the Chinese bamboo partridge (Bambusicola thoracica), maintained only 85.71% identity.(ii) The 12 species of phasianine birds previously and presently studied belonged to three distinct branches. The first branch was made exclusively of members of the genus Galus, while the second branch was made of pheasants ofthe genera Phasianus, Chrysolophus, and Syrmaticus. Gallopheasants of the genus Lophura were distant cousins to these pheasants. The great argus (Argusianus argus) and peafowls of the genus Pavo constituted the third branch. The position of peacock-pheasants of the genus Polypectron in the third branch was similar to that of the genus Lophura in the second branch. Members of the fourth phasianine branch, such as tragopans and monals, were not included in the present study. (iii) The one perdicine species, Bambusicola thoracica, was more closely related to phasianine genera Gallus and Pavo than to members of other perdicine genera. The above might indicate that Bambusicola belong to one-stem perdicine lineage that later splits into two sublineages that yielded phasianine birds, one evolving to Galus, and the other differentiating toward Pavo and its allies.

Comparative Genomic Analysis of Two Avian (Quail and Chicken) MHC Regions

“…6B), which is similar to the average divergences in other chromosomal intronic regions (ϳ14 -17%) and in the mitochondrial sequence (14.3%) (Ref. 57 and data not shown). Because of this sequence diversity, chicken microsatellite primers did not generally allow successful PCR amplification in the quail genome (58).…”

Organization and Evolution of the Mitochondrial DNA Control Region in the Avian Genus Alectoris

“…The entire mtDNA D-loops were PCR amplified using the primers PHDL (5Ј-AGG ACT ACG GCT TGA AAA GC-3Ј) and PHDH (5Ј-CAT CTT GGC ATC TTC AGT GCC-3Ј) (Fumihito et al 1995), whose 5Ј terminal nucleotides bind to positions 16,750 and 1255 of the chicken mitochondrial genome, respectively . These primers consistently yield a single and very clean PCR product of the expected size.…”

“…Peripheral domains have hypervariable ETAS-extended termination-associated sequence domain and mammalian consensus sequences (ETAS1 and ETAS2) (Sbisà et al 1997); R1 and R2-tandem repeats in the ETAS and CSB peripheral domains; B, C, D, E, F-conserved sequence blocks of the central domain; O H -origin of H-strand replication; CSB1, -2, and -3-conserved sequence blocks of the CSB peripheral domain; LSP-light-strand transcription promoter; HSP-heavy-strand transcription promoter. blocks (Quinn 1992;Edwards 1993;Wenink et al 1996) and contain tandem repeats in Gallus (Desjardins and Morais 1991;Fumihito et al 1995), the lesser snow goose (Quinn and Wilson 1993), Ciconiiformes (Wenink et al 1994;Berg et al 1995), and passerines (Mundy et al 1997). Some of these repeats include sequences similar to CSB1 (Desjardins and Morais 1991;Ramirez et al 1993;Quinn and Wilson 1993).…”

“…Rates and patterns of molecular evolution of avian D-loops are not known, with the exception of a few studies at the population level (Quinn 1992;Edwards 1993;Wenink et al 1996). The phylogenetic content of avian D-loops has been explored only for some phasianid and passerine species (Fumihito et al 1995;Marshall and Baker 1997).…”

“…Nevertheless, the first 161 nucleotides of domain I of the Alectoris, immediately flanking the tRNA Glu , evolve at an unusually low rate and show motifs similar to the mammalian extended termination-associated sequences [ETAS1 and ETAS2 (Sbisà et al 1997)], which can form stable secondary structures. The second part of domain I contains a hypervariable region with two divergent copies of a tandemly repeated sequence described previously in other species of anseriforms and galliforms (Quinn and Wilson 1993;Fumihito et al 1995). Some of the conserved sequence blocks of mammals can be mapped in the central domain of Alectoris.…”