Insertion Events of CR1 Retrotransposable Elements Elucidate the Phylogenetic Branching Order in Galliform Birds

摘要

Using standard phylogenetic methods, it can be hard to resolve the order in which speciation events took place when new lineages evolved in the distant past and within a short time frame. As an example, phylogenies of galliform birds (including well-known species such as chicken, turkey, and quail) usually show low bootstrap support values at short internal branches, reflecting the rapid diversification of these birds in the Eocene. However, given the key role of chicken and related poultry species in agricultural, evolutionary, general biological and disease studies, it is important to know their internal relationships. Recently, insertion patterns of transposable elements such as long and short interspersed nuclear element markers have proved powerful in revealing branching orders of difficult phylogenies.