Molecular evidence of Pleistocene bidirectional faunal exchange between Europe and the Near East: the case of the bicoloured shrew (Crocidura leucodon, Soricidae)

Abstract

We sequenced 1077 bp of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and 511 bp of the nuclear Apolipoprotein B gene in bicoloured shrew (Crocidura leucodon, Soricidae) populations ranging from France to Georgia. The aims of the study were to identify the main genetic clades within this species and the influence of Pleistocene climatic variations on the respective clades. The mitochondrial analyses revealed a European clade distributed from France eastwards to north‐western Turkey and a Near East clade distributed from Georgia to Romania; the two clades separated during the Middle Pleistocene. We clearly identified a population expansion after a bottleneck for the European clade based on mitochondrial and nuclear sequencing data; this expansion was not observed for the eastern clade. We hypothesize that the western population was confined to a small Italo‐Balkanic refugium, whereas the eastern population subsisted in several refugia along the southern coast of the Black Sea.

Mitochondrial phylogeography of the edible dormouse (Glis glis) in the western Palearctic region

“…Genetic structure of G. glis.-In contrast to the other studies of European rodents, which reported high levels of genetic divergence (Brunhoff et al 2003;Cosson et al 2005;Deffontaine et al 2005Deffontaine et al , 2009Dubey et al 2007;Fink et al 2004;Searle 2002, 2004;Kotlik et al 2006;Michaux et al 2003Michaux et al , 2005Neumann et al 2005), our results show very low genetic variability in G. glis. The evolutionary trees and haplotype network divide G. glis into 3 wellsupported genetic lineages that have nonoverlapping geographical distributions (with the exception of Sicilian animals occurring in 2 different haplogroups).…”

New Insight into the Colonization Processes of Common Voles: Inferences from Molecular and Fossil Evidence

“…Similarities with phylogeographic patterns of M. arvalis data from several genetic markers (cytb, CR, microsatellites) [33], [34], as well as data from other temperate species [3], [13], [42]–[45] suggest that the distribution of populations between Western and Eastern Europe reflects the evolutionary history of populations rather than genetic marker genealogy. Molecular dating indicates that the population divergence, from the lineage origin to the origin of the Spanish clade of M. arvalis , occurred during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (0.475–0.086 Myr), and thus predated the LGM widely.…”

“…The C and E lineages have a shallow regional genetic structure. Low nucleotide diversity (0.53% and 0.62%, respectively), star-like topologies (Figure 2) and analyses of demographic history indicating sudden expansion (Figure 3) provide evidence for a past bottleneck event followed by probable post-LGM population expansion [45]–[47]. The oldest major W lineage presents a higher level of nucleotide diversity (1.31%) suggestive of relatively large population sizes, and shows a hierarchical phylogeographic structure (NE and SW sublineages) as observed in the field vole [43].…”

Phylogeography of the weasel (Mustela nivalis) in the western-Palaearctic region: combined effects of glacial events and human movements

“…Although based on a small sampling, our data do not support the hypothesis of a refugium located in the Balkan area. This pattern of more stable populations in the Balkans has already been described for the bi-coloured shrew (Crocidura leucodon; Dubey et al, 2007b) and the yellow-necked fieldmouse (Apodemus flavicollis; Michaux et al, 2005). This might be explained by milder climatic conditions prevailing in places farther from the ice sheet.…”