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Introgressive hybridization in southern African baboons shapes patterns of mtDNA variation
Author(s) -
Keller C.,
Roos C.,
Groeneveld L.F.,
Fischer J.,
Zinner D.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.21209
Subject(s) - biology , baboon , introgression , zoology , population , mitochondrial dna , cytochrome b , clade , evolutionary biology , taxon , phylogenetic tree , range (aeronautics) , ecology , demography , genetics , materials science , sociology , composite material , gene
Species, as main evolutionary units have long been considered to be morphological entities with limited hybridization potential. The occurrence of taxa which maintain morphological distinctness despite extensive hybridization is an interesting phenomenon. To understand the evolution of these taxa, descriptions of contemporary morphological and genetic variation are essential, also to reconstruct sound phylogenies. Baboons, with their wide geographic range, variant morphotypes, and extensive hybridization offer an intriguing model for those studies. We focus on the complex situation in southern Africa that, in contrast to east Africa, has been neglected in terms of baboon hybridization history. We aim to clarify the distribution and identify possible overlapping zones between different, previously described mitochondrial (mt) DNA clades of baboons that do not match with the ranges of traditionally recognized species. On the basis of the widespread sampling and mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequencing, we constructed a phylogenetic tree that separates representatives of the two southern African baboon species, yellow and chacma baboons, into six clades: southern, northern and eastern chacmas, Kinda baboons and southern and Luangwa yellow baboons. The ranges of the chacma clades come into close contact or overlap in two regions in the Republic of South Africa and Namibia. Our phylogenetic reconstruction reveals mitochondrial paraphyly for chacma and yellow baboons, which is probably caused by introgressive hybridization and subsequent nuclear swamping, whereby males of the chacma morphotype population from the south invaded the yellow morphotype population in the north bringing their morphotype into a population that maintained its yellow baboon mtDNA. Am J Phys Anthropol 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.