Nucleotide sequences of segments of the mitochondrial control regions were analyzed to infer the phylogenetic relationships among 7 macaques.High nucleotide diversity in Macaca assamensis and relatively low diversity in M.thibetana were found.Based on the ML tree from control regions,species in our study can roughly be sorted into three species groups except for the phylogenetic position of M.fascicularis,i.e.,silenus group,including M.leonina;sinica group,including M.arctoides,M.assamensis,and M.thibetana;and fascicularis group,including M.mulatta and M.cyclopis.A discrepancy between earlier studies (Fooden & Lanyon,1989;Tosi et al,2003a;Deinard & Smith,2001;Evans et al,1999;Hayasaka et al,1996;Morales & Melnick,1998),our result supported the hypothesis that M.fascicularis diverged earlier than M.leonina.Mitochondrial paraphyly in eastern M.mulatta (with respect to M.cyclopis) and eastern M.assamensis (with respect to M.thibetana) were clearly observed in our study.In accordance with the results of Y chromosome,allozyme,nuclear genes and some morphological data (Delson,1980;Fooden & Lanyon,1989;Fooden,1990;Tosi et al,2000,2003a,b;Deinard & Smith,2001),our study on control region sequences supported M.arctoides to be classified into the sinica group.However,this result disagreed with the previous mtDNA studies (Hayasaka et al,1996;Morales & Melnick,1998;Tosi et al,2003a).
