Phylogenetic Relationship of the Genera Aethalops, Balionycteris and Chironax inferred from partial mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I (COI) Gene

• Main Author: Yap Yee, Fang
• Format: Final Year Project Report
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, (UNIMAS) 2009
• Subjects: QL Zoology; S Agriculture (General); SB Plant culture
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32665/2/Yee%20%28fulltext%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/32665/

This study was done to investigate the phylogenetic relationship among three genera of fruit bats, namely Aethalops, Balionycteris and Chironax. Twenty samples were analysed using 478 base pairs (bp) of partial mitochondrial DNA cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene. The samples were collected from eight locations in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. The phylogenetic trees constructed by using neighbor joining (NJ), maximum parsimony (MP) and maximum likelihood (ML) methods produced similar topology. All the trees were successful in separating the fruit bats into two major groups and further divided into five subgroups. Interestingly, high genetic divergences were found in Balionycteris maculata (12.7%) and Chironax melanocephalus (13.6%) from Royal Belum, Perak compared with other populations. The existence of geographical barrier between populations has stopped the gene flow and resulted in allopatric speciation. Another interesting finding of this study is the sharing of two haplotypes by Aethalops aequalis distributed in other areas. One of the haplotype is being shared between A. aequalis from Trus Madi and Mount Kinabalu while another one is being shared between A. aequalis from Trus Madi and Murud. It can be suggested that gene flow had occurred between these populations possibly during the late Pleistocene. Overall, the partial sequence of COI gene was useful for interpreting the interspecific relationship of the fruit bats.