食肉目鼬科（Mustelidae）物種是經歷快速輻射進化和近期物種形成事件的典型類群,，圍繞其所包含的各亞科之間的系統(tǒng)發(fā)育關系一直是國內外研究的熱點,，至今仍處于“眾說紛紜”的狀態(tài),。
中國科學院昆明動物研究所張亞平院士,、云南大學于黎研究員和博士研究生劉江,，碩士研究生彭丹結合模式生物基因組信息,，系統(tǒng)篩選得到17個新的單拷貝核基因內含子片段,，將它們用于食肉目鼬科亞科間系統(tǒng)發(fā)育關系研究,。研究結果支持美洲獾亞科(Taxidiinae)最先分歧，然后是獾亞科(Melinae),。水獺亞科(Lutrinae)和鼬亞科(Mustelinae)在所有分析中都聚為姐妹群,。有趣的是，鼬獾亞科(Helictidinae)的系統(tǒng)發(fā)育位置在核基因和線粒體基因分析中得到了不同的結果：線粒體基因組分析支持它和水獺亞科/鼬亞科的關系最近,，而核基因提出了與以往所有系統(tǒng)發(fā)育分析結果不同的系統(tǒng)發(fā)育假說,，支持它和貂亞科(Martinae)是姐妹群。
該研究文章發(fā)表在BMC Evolutionary Biology刊物上（2011, 11: 92）,。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推薦原文出處：
BMC Evolutionary Biology 2011, 11:92doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-92
On the phylogeny of Mustelidae subfamilies: analysis of seventeen nuclear non-coding loci and mitochondrial complete genomes
Li Yu , Dan Peng , Jiang Liu , Pengtao Luan , Lu Liang , Hang Lee , Muyeong Lee , Oliver A Ryder and Yaping Zhang
Abstract (provisional)
Background
Mustelidae, as the largest and most-diverse family of order Carnivora, comprises eight subfamilies. Phylogenetic relationships among these Mustelidae subfamilies remain argumentative subjects in recent years. One of the main reasons is that the mustelids represent a typical example of rapid evolutionary radiation and recent speciation event. Prior investigation has been concentrated on the application of different mitochondrial (mt) sequence and nuclear protein-coding data, herein we employ 17 nuclear non-coding loci (>15kb), in conjunction with mt complete genome data (>16kb), to clarify these enigmatic problems.
Results
The combined nuclear intron and mt genome analyses both robustly support that Taxidiinae diverged first, followed by Melinae. Lutrinae and Mustelinae are grouped together in all analyses with strong supports. The position of Helictidinae, however, is enigmatic because the mt genome analysis places it to the clade uniting Lutrinae and Mustelinae, whereas the nuclear intron analysis favores a novel view supporting a closer relationship of Helictidinae to Martinae. This finding emphasizes a need to add more data and include more taxa to resolve this problem. In addition, the molecular dating provides insights into the time scale of the origin and diversification of the Mustelidae subfamilies. Finally, the phylogenetic performances and limits of nuclear introns and mt genes are discussed in the context of Mustelidae phylogeny.
Conclusion
Our study not only brings new perspectives on the previously obscured phylogenetic relationships among Mustelidae subfamilies, but also provides another example demonstrating the effectiveness of nuclear non-coding loci for reconstructing evolutionary histories in a group that has undergone rapid bursts of speciation.
