抄録
The toque macaque (Macaca sinica), endemicto Sri Lanka, is traditionally classified bymorphological variation and geographicdistribution into three sub-species: Macaca s. sinica (Linnaeus, 1971) in the low country dryzone, arid zone and intermediate zone; M. s. aurifrons (Pocock, 1931) in the low countrywet zone and central midlands and M. s. opisthomelas (Hill, 1942) in the centralhighlands above 1500m. Intraspecific diversity oftoque macaques was previously investigated bymeans of electrophoreteic examination of bloodprotein polymorphisms (Shotake et al. 1991), abisexually inherited genetic marker. That study revealed a low degree of local differentiationamong populations suggesting gene exchange due tointergroup adult male transfer. In order toassess phylogeographical features of the toquemacaque, in this study, we examined molecularvariation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), amaternally inherited genetic marker. Samples werecollected from a total of 24 habitats, consistingof blood samples from 17 groups in 13 sites (Shotake et al. 1991) and fecal samples newlyobtained from 11 sites during 2007-2010. Sequencedata were obtained from two regions in mtDNA, 339bp of the D-loop region and 393bp of the 16S rRNAregion. Two distinctive groups of mtDNA haplotypeswere recognized; one cluster was distributedubiquitously in the upland/highland zone and theother in the lowland zone. This geneticdifferentiation is not consistent with a 3sub-species classification based on morphology andgeographical location, but rather is consistentwith adaptations elevation zones.
