Allozyme Variation in Four Populations of African Whitebacked Vultures (Gyps Africanus) and Phylogenetic Relationships Between Four Vulture Species from Southern Africa

Genetic variation detected by protein electrophoresis at 41 presumptive gene loci was assayed in four populations of Gyps africanus and compared to values previously obtained for Gyps coprotheres. Values calculated for percentage of polymorphic loci (P=34.15%, 0.99 criterion) and average heterozygosity (&Hmacr;=0.108, +/-0.032) in G. africanus, confirm low levels of genetic variation as reported for G. coprotheres. Allele frequency data, assessed at 19 loci, were obtained to evaluate genetic differentiation among four vulture species. Six (31.58%) of the 19 shared loci were polymorphic. Values of 1.26 (+/-0.1), 26.32% and 0.076 (+/-0.047) for G. africanus, 1.21 (+/-0.1), 21.05% and 0.097 (+/-0.045) for Torgos tracheliotus, 1.11 (+/-0.7), 21.05% and 0.053 (+/-0.053) for Neophron percnopterus and 1.05 (+/-0.5), 5.26% and 0.044 (+/-0.047) for G. coprotheres were obtained for the mean number of alleles per locus, P and &Hmacr;, respectively. An average between-population fixation index (F(ST)) value of 0.322 was obtained, which is indicative of significant (P<0.01) differentiation between the four accipitrid species studied. Considerable concordance was obtained between dendograms produced from different analyses, pointing to the distinctiveness of N. percnopterus, which has evolved along a separate lineage as G. africanus, G. coprotheres and T. tracheliotus. Along the latter lineage G. africanus is clustered together with G. coprotheres which is consistent with the morphological similarities of these species.