Chimpanzee and human mitochondrial DNA - A principal components and individual-by-site analysis

This article introduces principal components analysis as a means of constructing phylogenetic trees. Applying this method to Morin's chimpanzee data reveals three major lineages corresponding to the subspecies P. t. verus, P. t. troglodytes, and P. t. schweinfurthii. Analysis of the Vigilant et al. (1991) human mtDNA data set yields a phylogenetic tree with 11 lineages. African types (except for two Asian cases) comprise the first nine lineages. The individual-bysite matrix reveals the greatest lineage differentiation among Africans and a surprising lack of correspondence between mtDNA lineages and racial groupings. Overall, the analysis supports the African origin hypothesis.