Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 12, 168-176, Copyright © 1995 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
MS Frye and SB Hedges
A recent analysis of amino acid sequence data (Graur et al.) suggested that
the mammalian order Rodentia is polyphyletic, in contrast to most
morphological data, which support rodent monophyly. At issue is whether the
hystricognath rodents, such as the guinea pig, represent an independent
evolutionary lineage within mammals, separate from the sciurognath rodents.
To resolve this problem, we sequenced a region (2,645 bp) of the
mitochondrial genome of the guinea pig containing the complete 12S
ribosomal RNA, 16S ribosomal RNA, and transfer RNA(VAL) genes for
comparison with the available sciurognath and other mammalian sequences.
Several methods of analysis and statistical tests of the data all show
strong support for rodent monophyly (91%-98% bootstrap probability, or BP).
Calibration with the mammalian fossil record suggests a Cretaceous date
(107 mya) for the divergence of sciurognaths and hystricognaths. An older
date (38 mya) for the controversial Mus- Rattus divergence also is
supported by these data. Our neighbor-joining analyses of all available
sequence data (25 genes) confirm that some individual genes support rodent
polyphyly but that tandem analysis of all data does not. We propose that
the conflicting results are due to several compounding factors. The unique
biochemical properties of some hystricognath metabolic proteins, largely
responsible for generating this controversy, may have a single explanation:
a cascade effect resulting from inactivation of the zinc-binding abilities
of insulin. After excluding six genes possibly affected by insulin
inactivation, analyses of all available sequence data (7,117 nucleotide
sites, 3,099 amino acid sites) resulted in strong support for rodent
monophyly (94% BP for DNA sequences, 90% for protein sequences), which
lends support to the insulin-cascade hypothesis.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Monophyly of the order Rodentia inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences of the genes for 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and tRNA-valine
Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park 16802.
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