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| "Molecular Phylogenetics and Biogeography of the Southeast Asian Tree Shrews (Tupaiidae)" Han Kwai Hin Friday, 3rd October 2003: 4.00pm NIE Lecture Theatre 2 Abstract All fiva taxa in the common tree shrew Tupaia glis species group – T. belangeri, T. chinensis, T. glis, T. longipes, and T. salatana - are well differentiated genetically with uncorrected p-distances of cytochrome branging from 8.36 to 17.52%. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic analysis of multiple individuals within groups indicated that each of these five taxa is monophyletic. The combination of their monophyly, large degree of genetic differentiation, geographic separation, and morphological differences supports the recognition of these five taxa as full species. The phylogeny suggests that the Bornean Tupaia taxa (T. longipes and T. salatana) may be derived from Indochinese root (T. belangeri and T. chinensis). Intrafamilial phylogenetic analyses of cytochrome b sequence variation placed the Smooth-tailed tree shrew, Dendrogale murina, as the outgroup of Tupaia, and the bushy-tailed Urogale everetti and the pen-tailed Ptilocercus lowii shrews as members of Tupaia. Maximum likelihood comparisons yielded three distinct clades of tree shrews: a basal clade consisting of Asian mainland taxa, a middle clade of Philippine taxa, and a distal clade of Bornean taxa. This pattern suggests that the Bornean tree shrews originated on the Asian mainland. On Borneo, two phylogeographic patterns - one deep and one shallow - were found, suggesting that the island was colonized repeatedly. About the speaker He then completed his master’s research project at the same campus on morphometric and biochemical variation of two tree shrew species (Tupaia tana and T. montana) using multivariate statistics and allozyme electrophoresis. He was awarded a MSc degree in 1992. He was then awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship by the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (USA) to study the interspecific relationships of the tree shrews using DNA-DNA hybridisation technique in 1993. In 1994 he was awarded a graduate assistantship by the Department of Biological Sciences and Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State University (USA) to pursue his PhD study on the molecular systematics of the tree shrews. He received his PhD degree in 2000. He taught undergraduate biology for a year and a half at Louisiana State University before he joined the National Neuroscience Institute of Singapore in September 2002 as a postdoctoral research fellow. His current projects include mapping the genes of a neurological movement disorder in the laboratory rat and identifying the proteins that interact with spastin, a gene that is responsible for the hereditary spastic paraparesis in humans. Source: Kwek Leong Chuan |
Locations of venues, Dept. Biological Sciences, NUS Please
refer to this map Seminar Room 3
(SR3) Life Sciences Lab
7A-D Lecture Theatre 32 Raffles Museum To be kept appraised of the meetings of the Biodiversity Journal Club, please subscribe to the Ecotax Mailing List For updates on Natural History news in Singapore, see Habitatnews Meetings of the Biodiversity & Ecology Journal Club, 2003 Jaap J. Vermeulen - "Sulawesi - Straddling East and West". 4th March 2003 Tzi Ming Leong, Daisy Wowor & Darren Yeo - "Natuna Revisited: A preliminary survey of Pulau Natuna Besar". 25th Feb 2003. Astrid van Meeuwen - "Why do kereru (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) eat what they eat?". 21st Feb 2003. |
