The efficiency of mitochondrial DNA markers in constructing genetic relationship among Oryx species

Abstract

To date, only parts of mitochondrial DNA from cytochrome b, 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA and non-coding Dloop had been sequenced for different species of Oryx. Discrepancy in the genetic relationship among Oryx species was previously revealed when combinations of these sequences were analyzed. In the present study, various combinations of these data sets and different sampling sizes of the closely related tribes of the family Bovidae were manipulated using bioinformatics. These data were used to provide the genetic kinship among different Oryx species. The complete cytochrome b gene sequence was also used alone for the same purpose after excluding the third position of its codons. Using Bayesian (BA), maximum-parsimony (MP), maximum-likelihood (ML) and neighbor-joining (NJ) analytical methods, a single relationship was obtained in which the different Oryx species were sisters and the Arabian Oryx was the oldest. Our results demonstrated that, the molecular markers and the samples size were more robust and efficient in building the relationship than computational methods.

Key words: Conservation, endangered species, Oryx, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers.