Phylogeny of selected babblers (Family : Timaliidae) inferred from mtdna cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene

A study on phylogeny of eight species of babblers (Family: Timaliidae) in Sarawak by using mitochondrial \nDNA (mtDNA) cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene was conducted. The samples were taken from both fresh \nand also voucher specimens that were available in UNIMAS. Four phylogenetic trees were constructed by \nusing four different methods namely, Neighbour-Joining (NJ), Maximum Parsimony (MP), Maximum \nLikelihood (ML) and Bayesian inferences in this study. The ML and Bayesian trees showed that Timaliidae \ncan be grouped into two groups that is group 1, genus Stachyris, and group 2, which consist of Pellorneum, \nTrichastoma, Malacocincla and Malacopteron genera. This showed that Pellorneum, Trichastoma, \nMalacocincla and Malacopteron are closely related compared to genus Stachyris. COI is a good genetic \nmarker which can detect intraspecific variation within species and the relationship of the individuals by \ncomparing the genetic divergence and the length of tree.