AN ASSESSMENT OF THE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG SPECIES OF CAMELIDAE BY SATELLITE DNA COMPARISONS

Tandem satellite arrays and interspersed repetitive DNA components of the New World camelids guanaco, Ilama, alpaca, and vicuna and the Old World bactrian camel have been identified and compared. Southern hybridizations, using camel restriction fragments as probes, indicated that satellite DNAs in all camelids examined have been conserved since the last common ancestor about 5-10 MY ago. The hybridization profiles, however, varied from totally identical (MspI-sat) to highly differentiated (PstI-sat and EcoRI-sat) between Old and New World species. Repetitive DNA patterns specific of South American camelids were identified by most of the vicuna and guanaco probes and (a) Ilama and guanaco have undifferentiable patterns, supporting the view that the former is a domesticated form of the latter; (b) vicuna patterns were species-specific and in agreement with its position in a separate taxonomic unit; (c) the presence in alpaca of BamHI, TaqI and EcoRI patterns that are intermediate between those of the species above, suggested that the origin of the alpaca may be found in a cross-breed between the guanaco and vicuna.