Phylogenetic relationship and molecular dating of Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) with other extant pangolin species based on complete cytochrome b mitochondrial gene

Abstract

Pangolins are a group of eight endangered mammalian species included in the family Manidae (Order Pholidota) and divided into four each African (Arboreal species; Phataginus tetradactyla, Phataginus tricuspis, Ground dwelling species; Smutsia gigantea and Smutsia temminckii) and Asian (Ground dwelling; Manis crassicaudata, Manis pentadactyla, Manis javanica and Manis culionensis) species. The taxonomy of all the eight extant pangolin species based on molecular genetics studies, remains unresolved and poorly examined. The present study is to address this lacuna by studying the phylogenetic, taxonomic status and molecular dating of Indian pangolin with other six out of eight extant pangolins (Sunda pangolin possibly extinct) based on complete coding region of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Overall sequences divergence among pangolins ranged between 0.01 ± 0.01 and 0.26 ± 0.03, where within ‘Manis’ it ranged between 0.01 ± 0.01 and 0.14 ± 0.03. Cytochrome b sequences based phylogenetic tree revealed, the division of seven pangolin species into two paraphyletic clades of African and Asian species, further these two paraphyletic clades were divided into three well-supported monophyletic clades, first for the genus ‘Smutsia’ with two African ground pangolins, second for the genus ‘Phataginus’ with two African arboreal pangolins and third for ‘Manis’ with three Asian species. Within clade of ‘Manis’, Chinese pangolin and Malayan pangolin are basal where Indian pangolin is present as a sister clade and furthermore, molecular dating analysis suggested that pangolins diverged from Carnivora at ∼87.2 MYA, followed by the split of Asian pangolins and African pangolins at ∼36.1 MYA and Indian pangolin split from Chinese pangolin and Malayan pangolin at ∼16.7 MYA.

Keywords:

• Indian pangolin
• cytochrome b
• molecular phylogeny
• molecular dating and conservation

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Director, Dean, and Research Coordinator of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, for supporting and facilitating this work. The authors acknowledge the Principle Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Government of Uttarakhand to give the permission for field survey and sample collection in Uttarakhand. The authors also acknowledge Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India to providing the grant under the National Post Doc Scheme (Reff. No. PDF/2016/003136).

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data Aavailability

Sequences generated from present study submitted in Genbank and waiting for accession number.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India to providing the grant under the National Post Doc Scheme [Ref. No. PDF/2016/003136].