New insights into the taxonomy and phylogeny of social voles inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences

Abstract

a b s t r a c tWe sequenced the entire cytochrome b gene in Microtus paradoxus from Turkmenistan and Microtus socialis from Crimea and Kalmykia. Phylogenetic relationships among social voles were reconstructed by the inclusion into analyses of a further 23 published haplotypes belonging to six species. The two probabilistic methods which were used in phylogenetic analyses, the Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood, yielded very similar results. Both trees showed two highly divergent lineages which were further subdivided into seven species. The socialis lineage encompassed four species (M. socialis, M. irani, M. anatolicus, and M. paradoxus), and the remaining three species clustered into the guentheri lineage (M. guentheri, M. hartingi, M. dogramacii). The ranges for nucleotide divergences between seven species of social voles (4.95-9.28% and 4.18-8.81% for mean and net divergences, respectively) mainly exceeded 4.3%, which is frequently regarded as the conservative cut-off between sibling species in the specious genus Microtus.

Comparison of the chromosome banding patterns in three species of social voles (Microtus irani karamani, M. schidlovskii, M. anatolicus) from Turkey

“…The resulting tree depicting the relationships between species cannot be directly compared to available molecular trees because different species were employed in individual analyses (Jaarola et al, 2004;Kryštufek et al, 2012;Martínková and Moravec, 2012). However, the close relationships between M. irani and M. schidlovskii were also supported in the tree proposed by Zorenko et al (2014).…”

“…Musser and Carleton (2005) recognized eight species in this group but this treatment has been under intensive discussion. Kryštufek et al (2009Kryštufek et al ( , 2012 and Zorenko et al (2014) distinguished two basic phylogenetic branches within this group, i.e. the socialis and the guentheri lineages.…”

The spermatozoa structure peculiarities of the subgenus Sumeriomys (Rodentia, Arvicolinae, Microtus)

“…The senior author considers it as an independent species, proving the opinion by data on the molecular and genetic analysis on a gene cytochrome b, partial sterility of hybrids from crossing of this form with Microtus socialis (Zykov & Zagorodnyuk, 1988;Kryštufek et al, 2012;Zorenko, 2012) and morphology of body and brain (Zorenko, 2013). The junior author considers the Kopet Dag vole as a subspecies M. s. paradoxus.…”

Species inflation and taxonomic artefacts—A critical comment on recent trends in mammalian classification

“…Kryštufek et al (2012), in an analysis of voles (Microtus) based on cytochrome b sequences, found divergence levels within two acknowledged species that exceeded the threshold of 4.3%, a conservative cut-off criterion between sibling species in Microtus. A similar line of reasoning led Osmers et al (2012) to support the separation of southern and eastern oryx antelopes (Oryx gazella and O. beisa).…”