Multi-Locus Genetic Identification of a Newly Discovered Population Reveals a Deep Genetic Divergence in European Blind Mole Rats (Rodentia: Spalacidae: Nannospalax)

Németh, Attila; Csorba, Gábor; Laczkó, Levente; Mizsei, Edvárd; Bereczki, Judit; Pásztor, János Attila; Petró, Péter; Sramkó, Gábor

doi:10.5735/086.057.0110

Cited by 8 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The same was found by Kajtoch et al 22 who found that River Vistula is an important barrier for a flightless weevil species. Similarly, large rivers are also important barriers for a subterranean rodent genus ( Nannospalax ) in the Pannonian Basin 34 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Range-wide phylogeography of the flightless steppe beetle Lethrus apterus (Geotrupidae) reveals recent arrival to the Pontic Steppes from the west

Sramkó

Kosztolányi

Laczkó

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The Eurasian Steppe belt is one of the largest biomes in the Northern Hemisphere. We provide here a range-wide phylogeography of the flightless steppe beetle Lethrus apterus that inhabits the western part of the Steppe belt through the study of population-level variance of mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I sequences and nuclear microsatellites. We detected a concordant geographic structure of genetic data with a significant isolation-by-distance pattern. We found more genetic variation in the western part of the area and identified Northern Bulgaria and the Pannonian Basin as possible refugia. Genetic clusters were separated by main rivers in the eastern part of the area. This implies west-to-east colonisation and argues for an evolutionarily recent arrival of this species to its current main distribution area, the Pontic Steppes. This contradicts the classical biogeographical wisdom that assumed an east-to-west colonisation pattern.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Range-wide phylogeography of the flightless steppe beetle Lethrus apterus (Geotrupidae) reveals recent arrival to the Pontic Steppes from the west

Sramkó

Kosztolányi

Laczkó

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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“…The Lesser blind mole rat ( Nannospalax (superspecies leucodon )) superspecies complex includes several morphologically very similar but genetically isolated species ( Csorba et al, 2015 ; Németh et al, 2020 ). Besides genetic differences within the superspecies complex, involved taxa have the same ecological function and lifestyle, hence here we did not distinguish between them.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subterranean rodents inhabit open landscapes, including open woodland savanna in Africa ( e.g ., African mole-rats or blesmols, Bathyergidae family, Nevo, 1999 ; Visser, Bennett & van Vuuren, 2019 ) and Mediterranean and continental steppes of Eurasia ( e.g ., blind mole rats, Spalacidae family, Németh et al, 2020 , Nevo, 1999 ; and zokors, Myotalpinae family Zhang, Zhang & Liu, 2003 ). They are highly specialised to a subterranean lifestyle and most of these species spend the majority of their time below ground.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patch and matrix characteristics determine the outcome of ecosystem engineering by mole rats in dry grasslands

Valkó

Kelemen

Kiss

et al. 2022

PeerJ

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Background Burrowing mammals are important ecosystem engineers, especially in open ecosystems where they create patches that differ from the surrounding matrix in their structure or ecosystem functions. Methods We evaluated the fine-scale effects of a subterranean ecosystem engineer, the Lesser blind mole rat on the vegetation composition of sandy dry grasslands in Hungary. In this model system we tested whether the characteristics of the patch (mound size) and the matrix (total vegetation cover in the undisturbed grassland) influence the structural and functional contrasts between the mounds and the undisturbed grasslands. We sampled the vegetation of 80 mounds and 80 undisturbed grassland plots in four sites, where we recorded the total vegetation cover, and the occurrence and cover of each vascular plant species. We used two proxies to characterise the patches (mounds) and the matrix (undisturbed grassland): we measured the perimeter of the mounds and estimated the total vegetation cover of the undisturbed grasslands. First, we compared the vegetation characteristics of the mounds and the surrounding grasslands with general linear models. Second, we characterised the contrasts between the mounds and the undisturbed grassland by relative response indices (RRIs) of the vegetation characteristics studied in the first step. Results Species composition of the vegetation of the mounds and undisturbed grasslands was well separated in three out of the four study sites. Mounds were characterised by lower vegetation cover, lower cover of perennial graminoids, and higher diversity, and evenness compared to undisturbed grasslands. The contrast in vegetation cover between mounds and undisturbed grasslands increased with decreasing patch size. Increasing vegetation cover in the matrix grasslands increased the contrasts between the mounds and undisturbed grasslands in terms of total cover, perennial graminoid cover, diversity, and evenness. Our results suggest that mole rat mounds provide improved establishment conditions for subordinate species, because they are larger than other types of natural gaps and are characterised by less intense belowground competition. The ecosystem engineering effect, i.e., the contrast between the patches and the matrix was the largest in the more closed grasslands.

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“…Continuity was proved for some species that were not expected to survive the LGM, such as Parnassius mnemosyne (Pecsenye et al ., 2016), Salamandra salamandra (Vörös et al ., 2016) and Nannospalax spp. (Németh et al ., 2020).…”

Section: Biogeographical and Ecological Implications Of The Flora Con...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Is there a massive glacial–Holocene flora continuity in Central Europe?

Molnár,

Demeter,

Biró

et al. 2023

Biological Reviews

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The prevailing paradigm about the Quaternary ecological and evolutionary history of Central European ecosystems is that they were repeatedly impoverished by regional extinctions of most species during the glacial periods, followed by massive recolonizations from southern and eastern refugia during interglacial periods. Recent literature partially contradicts this view and provides evidence to re‐evaluate this Postglacial Recolonization Hypothesis and develop an alternative one. We examined the long‐term history of the flora of the Carpathian (Pannonian) Basin by synthesising recent advances in ecological, phylogeographical, palaeoecological and palaeoclimatological research, and analysing the cold tolerance of the native flora of a test area (Hungary, the central part of the Carpathian Basin). We found that (1) many species have likely occurred there continuously since before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM); (2) most of the present‐day native flora (1404 species, about 80%) can occur in climates as cold as or colder than the LGM (mean annual temperature ≤+3.5°C); and (3) grasslands and forests can be species‐rich under an LGM‐like cold climate. These arguments support an alternative hypothesis, which we call the Flora Continuity Hypothesis. It states that long‐term continuity of much of the flora in the Carpathian Basin is more plausible than regional extinctions during the LGM followed by massive postglacial recolonizations. The long‐term continuity of the region's flora may have fundamental implications not only for understanding local biogeography and ecology (e.g. the temporal scale of processes), but also for conservation strategies focusing on protecting ancient species‐rich ecosystems and local gene pools.

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Multi-Locus Genetic Identification of a Newly Discovered Population Reveals a Deep Genetic Divergence in European Blind Mole Rats (Rodentia: Spalacidae: Nannospalax)

Cited by 8 publications

References 30 publications

Range-wide phylogeography of the flightless steppe beetle Lethrus apterus (Geotrupidae) reveals recent arrival to the Pontic Steppes from the west

Range-wide phylogeography of the flightless steppe beetle Lethrus apterus (Geotrupidae) reveals recent arrival to the Pontic Steppes from the west

Patch and matrix characteristics determine the outcome of ecosystem engineering by mole rats in dry grasslands

Is there a massive glacial–Holocene flora continuity in Central Europe?

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