Vol. 47 No. 3, 2008

Molecular Phylogenetics among Three Families of Bats (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, and Vespertilionidae) Based on Partial Sequences of the Mitochondrial 12S and 16S rRNA Genes

Xiao-Ming Gu^1,*, Shu-Yan He1, and Lei Ao²

¹School of Geographic and Biologic Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China
²Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, China.  E-mail:aoleiai@sohu.com

Xiao-Ming Gu, Shu-Yan He, and Lei Ao (2008) Extensive morphologic and molecular analyses of the phylogenetics of bats have been carried out, but controversies still exist.  In order to further deduce the phylogenetic relationships among the families Vespertilionidae, Hipposideridae, and Rhinolophidae of microbats (Chiroptera), partial mitochondrial 12S and 16S rRNA gene sequences (2400 bp) for 32 species of the 3 families were obtained, among which the sequences of 19 species were amplified in this study and the other 13 were retrieved from GenBank.  Meanwhile, those of 3 species in the family Pteropodidae and 1 species in the family Molossidae were also obtained from GenBank.  The phylogenetics of all 5 families were assessed using a maximum-parsimony (MP) analysis.  Second, the intrafamily relationships of the Vespertilionidae as well as the intra- and interfamily relationships of the Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae were addressed using Bayesian, minimum-evolution (ME), and Neighbor-joining (NJ) methods.  The following results were clearly demonstrated.  (1) The paraphyly of microbats was revealed.  (2) The subfamily Miniopterinae could not be elevated to family status, and it was the 1st clade separated from the Vespertilionidae.  (3) Myotis should be elevated to the subfamily Myotinae, which was sister to a clade containing the Kerivoulinae and Murininae.  (4) In the genus Myotis, all assayed New World and Old World species were respectively placed together in clades, and the 3 subgenera were not closely phylogenetically related.  (5) As for Pipistrelluslike bats, 3 genera (Ia, Scotomanes, and Eptesicus) were successively placed together in clades, and were sister to the clade containing Pipistrellus, indicating a higher probability that the genus Ia belongs to Eptesicini than to Pipistrellus.  (6) The Rhinolophoidae and Hipposideridae should be treated as separate families.  (7) In the genus Hipposideros, Hipposideros armiger was first placed together with H. larvatus in a clade, then with H. pratti, and H. bicolor was the 1st branch separated from other species of Hipposideros. (8) Finally, R. ferrumequinum and Rhinolophus sp. were the 1st branch separated from other Rhinolophids.

Key words: Phylogeny, Bats, Mitochondrial rRNA.

*Correspondence: E-mail:gxmswx@263.net