Abstract
Two species of warthogs (Phacochoerus), differing by the number of functional incisors, were described in the Holocene fossil record: the common warthog (P. africanus), widespread in sub-Sahar-an Africa, and the Cape, or desert warthog (P. aethiopicus), which was considered extinct since 1896, but was recently rediscovered in East Africa by morphological analyses. Mitochondrial and single-copy nuclear DNA sequences show that common and desert warthogs belong to two deeply divergent monophyletic lineages, that might have originated in the last part of the Pliocene. The finding of two genetically divergent extant species of warthogs highlights the importance of molecular methods applied to the knowledge and conservation of biodiversity in Africa, to uncover the tempo and mode of its species evolution.
Zusammenfassung
Zwei Arten des Warzenschweins (Phacochoerus), die sich in der ZahL funktioneller Schneidezähne unterscheiden, existieren in holozänen Fossilfunden: das über das Afrika südlich der Sahara weit verbreitete Gemeine Warzenschwein (P. africanus) und das Kap- oder Wüsten-Warzenschwein (P. aethiopicus), das man seit 1896 ausgestorben glaubte aber kürzlich in Ostafrika wiederent-deckte. Sequenzen der mitochondrialen DNA und von Einzelgenen der Kern-DNA zeigen, daß das Gemeine und das Wüsten-Warzenschwein zu zwei stark divergierenden monophyletischen Linien ge-hören, die am Ende des Pliozäns entstanden sein mögen. Die Wiederentdeckung von zwei genetisch unterschiedlichen rezenten Arten des Warzenschweins hebt die Bedeutung molekulaler Methoden für die Kenntnis und Erhaltung der Biodiversität in Afrika hervor.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, S.; de Brujin, M. H. L.; Coul-Son, A. R.; Eperon, I. C.; Sanger, E.; Young, G. (1982): Complete sequence of bovine mitochondrial DNA. Conserved features of the mammalian mitochondrial genome. Nature 37, 312–322.
Chikuni, K.; Mori, Y.; Tabata, T.; Saito, M.; Monma, M.; Kosuglyama, M. (1995): Molecular phylogeny based on the kappa-casein and cytochrome b sequences in the mammalian suborder Ruminantia. J. Mol. Evol. 41, 859–866.
Demenocal, B. (1995): Plio-Pleistocene African climate. Science 270, 53–59.
Ewer, R. E (1957): A collection of Phacochoerus aethiopicus teeth from the Kalkbank Middle Stone Age site, central Transvaal. Paleont. Africana 5, 5–20.
Felsenstein, J. (1981): Evolutionary trees from DNA sequences: A maximum likelihood approach. J. Mol. Evol. 17, 368–376.
Felsenstein, J. (1985): Confidence limits on phytogenies: An approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39, 83–791.
Gerloff, U.; Schlotterer, C.; Rassmann, K.; Ram-Bold, L.; Hohman, G.; Fruth, B.; Tautz, D. (1995): Amplification of hypervariable simple sequence repeats (microsatellites) from excre-mental DNA of wild living Bonobos (Pan paniscus). Mol. Ecol. 4, 515–518.
Grubb, P. (1993a): The Afrotropical Suids Phacochoerus, Hylochoerus, and Potamochoerus. In: Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Ed. by W. L. R. O-Liver. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. Pp. 66–75.
Grubb, P. (1993b): Order Artiodactyla. In: Mammal species of the world: Ed. by D. E. Wilson, and D. M. Reeder Washington, London: Smithsonian Institution Press. Pp. 377–414.
Hasegawa, M.; Kishino, H.; Yano, T. (1985): Dating of the human-ape splitting by a molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA. J. Mol. Evol. 21, 160–174.
Hillis, D. M.; Mable, B.; Moritz, C. (1996): Predictions of time from molecular data. In: Molecular Systematics: Ed. by D. M. Hillis, C. Moritz, and K. B. Mable. Sunderland, Massachussetts: Sinauer Associated.
Johns, G. C.; Avise, J. C. (1998): A comparative summary of genetic distances in the vertebrates from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Mol. Biol. Evol. 15, 1481–1490.
Kingdon, J. (1979): East African Mammals. Vol. III part B. New York: Academic Press.
Kohn, M. H.; Wayne, R. K. (1997): Facts from feces revisited. TREE 12, 223–227.
Li, W-H.; Gojobori, T.; Nei, M. (1981): Pseudo-genes as a paradigm of neutral evolution Nature 292, 237–239.
Lönnberg, E. (1909): Remarks on some warthog skulls in the British Museum. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1908, 936–940.
Lydekker, R. (1915): Catalogue of the Uungulate Mammals in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 4. London: Trustees of the British Museum.
Nowak, R. M.; Paradiso, J. L. (1983): Mammals of the World. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Okumara, N.; Ishiguro, N.; Nakano, M.; Hirai, K.; Matsui, A.; Sahara, M. (1996): Geographic population structure and sequence divergence in the mitochondrial DNA control region of the Japanese wild boar (Sus scrofa leucomystax), with reference to those of domestic pigs. Biochem. Genet. 34, 179–189.
Randi, E.; Lucchini, V.; Diong, C. H. (1996): Evolutionary genetics of the Suiformes as reconstructed using mtDNA sequencing. J. Mammal. Evol. 3, 163–194.
Roosevelt, T.; Heller, E. (1922): Life-histories of African Game Animals. Vol. 1. London: John Murray.
Saitou, N.; Nei, M. (1987): The neighbor-joining method: A new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. Mol. Biol. Evol. 4, 406–425.
Scott, G. R. (1981): Rinderpest. In: Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals: Ed. by J. W. Davis, L. H. Karstad, and D. O. Trainer. Ames: Iowa State University Press. Pp. 18–30.
Singer, D. S.; Parent, L.J.; Ehrlich, R. (1987): Identification and DNA sequence of an interspersed repetitive DNA element in the genome of the miniature swine. Nucl. Acid Res. 15, 2780.
Sulandari, S.; Muladno; Harumi, T.; Yanai, S.; Wada, Y.; Yasue, H. (1997): Localization of swine PRE-1 homologues in 13 loci of Phaco-choerus aethiopicus and Tayassu tajacu genomes, and their sequence divergence. Anim. Genet. 28, 210–215.
Swofford, D. L. (1998): PAUP*: Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony (and other methods), version 4.0b2a. Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer Associated.
Tamura, K.; Nei, M. (1993): Estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions in the control region of mitochondrial DNA in humans and chimpanzees. Mol. Biol. Evol. 10, 512–526.
Thompson, J. D.; Gibson, T. J.; Plewniak, E.; Jeanmougin, F.; Higgins, D. G. (1997): The CLUSTAL X windows interface: Flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucl. Acids Res. 24, 4876–4882.
Ursing, B. M.; Arnason, U. (1998): The complete mitochondrial DNA sequence of the pig (Sus scrofa). J. Mol. Evol. 47, 302–306.
Vercammen, P.; Mason, D. R. (1993): The warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus and P. aethiopicus). In: Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. Ed. by W. L. R. OLIVER. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. Pp. 75-84.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Randi, E., D’huart, J.P., Lucchini, V. et al. Evidence of two genetically deeply divergent species of warthog, Phacochoerus africanus and P. aethiopicus (Artiodactyla: Suiformes) in East Africa. Mamm Biol 67, 91–96 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1078/1616-5047-00013
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1078/1616-5047-00013