Tracing paternal ancestry in mice, using the Y-linked, sex-determining locus, Sry.
The molecular evolution of mammalian Y-linked DNA sequences is of special interest because of their unique mode of inheritance: most Y-linked sequences are clonally inherited from father to son. Here we investigate the use of Y-linked sequences for phylogenetic inference. We describe a comparative analysis of a 515-bp region from the male sex-determining locus, Sry, in 22 murine rodents (subfamily Murinae, family Muridae), including representatives from nine species of Mus, and from two additional murine genera--Mastomys and Hylomyscus. Percent sequence divergence was < 0.01% for comparisons between populations within a species and was 0.19%-8.16% for comparisons between species. Our phylogenetic analysis of 12 murine taxa resulted in a single most-parsimonius tree that is highly concordant with phylogenies based on mitochondrial DNA and allozymes. A total evidence tree based on the combined data from Sry, mitochondrial DNA, and allozymes supports (1) the monophyly of the subgenus Mus, (2) its division into a Palearctic group (M. musculus, M. domesticus, M. spicilegus, M. Macedonicus, and M. spretus) and an Oriental group (M. cookii++, M. cervicolor, and M. caroli), and (3) sister-group relationships between M. spicilegus and M. macedonicus and between M. cookii and M. cervicolor. We argue that Y-chromosome DNA sequences represent a valuable new source of characters for phylogenetic inference.
Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-1079.
B L
BL
Lundrigan
P K
PK
Tucker
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004247:DNA; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009115:Muridae / Q000235:genetics*; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D051876:Sex-Determining Region Y Protein; D014157:Transcription Factors; D014998:Y Chromosome
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D051876:Sex-Determining Region Y Protein; C497746:Sry protein, mouse; D014157:Transcription Factors; D004247:DNA