Phylogenomics of African guenons Sibyle Moulin 1,2 * , Miche `le Gerbault-Seureau 1 , Bernard Dutrillaux 1 & Florence Anne Richard 1,2 1 Muse´um National d_Histoire Naturelle, De´partement de Syste´matique et Evolution, UMR 5202 CNRS, Origine Structure et Evolution de la Biodiversite´, case postale 39, 16 rue Buffon, 75005, Paris, France; Tel: +33-014-079-5342 / +33-068-516-8766; Fax: +33-014-079-3337; E-mail: smoulin@mnhn.fr; 2 De´partement de biologie, Universite´de Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines, UFR de Sciences, 45 avenue des Etats Unis, 78035, Versailles, France * Correspondence Received 2 February 2008. Received in revised form and accepted for publication by Herbert Macgregor 15 May 2008 Key words: Cercopithecinae, chromosome, phylogeny, primate, reticulate evolution Abstract The karyotypes of 28 specimens belonging to 26 species of Cercopithecinae have been compared with each other and with human karyotype by chromosome banding and, for some of them, by Zoo-FISH (human painting probes) techniques. The study includes the first description of the karyotypes of four species and a synonym of Cercopithecus nictitans. The chromosomal homologies obtained provide us with new data on a large number of rearrangements. This allows us to code chromosomal characters to draw Cercopithecini phylogenetic trees, which are compared to phylogenetic data based on DNA sequences. Our findings show that some of the superspecies proposed by Kingdon (1997 The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals, Academic Press.) and Groves (2001 Primates Taxonomy, Smithsonian Institution Press) do not form homogeneous groups and that the genus Cercopithecus is paraphyletic, in agreement with previous molecular analyses. The evolution of Cercopithecini karyotypes is mainly due to non-centromeric chromosome fissions and centromeric shifts or inversions. Non-Robertsonian translocations occurred in C. hamlyni and C. neglectus. The position of chromosomal rearrangements in the phylogenetic tree leads us to propose that the Cercopithecini evolution proceeded by either repeated fission events facilitated by peculiar genomic structures or successive reticulate phases, in which heterozygous populations for few rearranged chromosomes were present, allowing the spreading of chromosomal forms in various combinations, before the speciation process. Introduction The Old World Monkeys and Apes are composed of three families: Hominidae, Hylobatidae and Cerco- pithecidae. Cercopithecidae comprise two sub-fami- lies Colobinae and Cercopithecinae. Cercopithecinae (guenons and papionins) are composed of 73 species present in both Africa and Asia (Wilson & Reeder 2005). Their systematics is very complex. Morphologically, guenons (Cercopithecini) show different faces and a wide degree of interspecific and intraspecific variations within their distribution area Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10577-008-1226-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Chromosome Research (2008) 16:783–799 # Springer 2008 DOI: 10.1007/s10577-008-1226-6