Phylogeny and biogeography of African Murinae based on mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences, with a new tribal classification of the subfamily

Abstract

BackgroundWithin the subfamily Murinae, African murines represent 25% of species biodiversity, making this group ideal for detailed studies of the patterns and timing of diversification of the African endemic fauna and its relationships with Asia. Here we report the results of phylogenetic analyses of the endemic African murines through a broad sampling of murine diversity from all their distribution area, based on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and the two nuclear gene fragments (IRBP exon 1 and GHR).ResultsA combined analysis of one mitochondrial and two nuclear gene sequences consistently identified and robustly supported ten primary lineages within Murinae. We propose to formalize a new tribal arrangement within the Murinae that reflects this phylogeny. The diverse African murine assemblage includes members of five of the ten tribes and clearly derives from multiple faunal exchanges between Africa and Eurasia. Molecular dating analyses using a relaxed Bayesian molecular clock put the first colonization of Africa around 11 Mya, which is consistent with the fossil record. The main period of African murine diversification occurred later following disruption of the migration route between Africa and Asia about 7–9 Mya. A second period of interchange, dating to around 5–6.5 Mya, saw the arrival in Africa of Mus (leading to the speciose endemic Nannomys), and explains the appearance of several distinctive African lineages in the late Miocene and Pliocene fossil record of Eurasia.ConclusionOur molecular survey of Murinae, which includes the most complete sampling so far of African taxa, indicates that there were at least four separate radiations within the African region, as well as several phases of dispersal between Asia and Africa during the last 12 My. We also reconstruct the phylogenetic structure of the Murinae, and propose a new classification at tribal level for this traditionally problematic group.

Progress on research on rodents and rodent-borne zoonoses in South-east Asia

“…1). These results were congruent with the Murinae phylogeny obtained by Lecompte et al (2008) and with the revised taxonomy of Rattini divisions proposed by Musser and Carleton (2005).…”

“…Within the Murinae, the Rattini tribe (Lecompte et al 2008) encompasses 35 genera and 167 rat species (Musser and Carleton 2005). Nearly all representatives of this tribe inhabit South-east Asia, a major hot spot of biodiversity (Myers et al 2000;Heaney 2011) under threat (Wilcove et al 2013).…”

Gastrointestinal nematodes of Coccymys ruemmleri (Rodentia, Muridae) with the description Montistrongylus giluwensis sp. nov. (Heligmonellidae) and Syphacia coccymyos sp. nov. (Oxyuridae) from Papua New Guinea

“…Comments on the helminth assemblages found in Coccymys, and other Papua New Guinean hydromyin hosts in the Pogonomys and Lorentzimys Divisions (Lecompte et al 2008) for which records are available are valid, however, as all the available information has been gathered using the same methods.…”

“…Lorentzimys nouhuysi Jentink is either the sole taxon in the Lorentzimys Division (Lecompte et al 2008) or nested within the Pogonomys Division (Rowe et.al. 2008).…”

“…It is thought to have arrived in the region about 6-8 million years ago and diversified about 5 million years ago (Breed and Aplin 2008). Comprising two species, Coccymys albidens (Tate, 1951), known only from the original series of six specimens and C. ruemmleri (Tate et Archbold, 1941), the genus has been placed in the Tribe Hydromyini (see Lecompte et al 2008) within the Pogonomys Division (see Musser and Carleton 2005) of New Guinea murines. Coccymys ruemmleri is a montane species found along the Central Cordillera of New Guinea.…”