摘要： 线粒体DNA作为理想的分子标记已被广泛用于鸟类种群遗传学和进化遗传学的研究，并取得了许多有意义的结果。本文介绍鸟类线粒体DNA的组成、结构特点及多态性的研究，综述近年来有关鸟类分子进化研究的进展情况，对今后的发展进行了初步的探讨。
Abstract:Mitochondrial DNA as a genetic marker has been successfully applied to the study of molecular evolution of birds.The apparently maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA and its fast evolution in primary sequence has made it attractive in population and evolutionary genetics.Mitochondrial DNA of birds displays two characteristics not seen in other vertebrates mtDNA,that is,a novel gene order and the absence of an equivalent to the light-strand replication origin.The research on polymorphism of mtDNA can resolve phylogenies of birds both at lower and higher taxonomic levels.Here we review progress on avian molecular evolution in recent years,and make preliminary studies of the development in this field.