Abstract
The role of intraspecific karyotype variability in reproductive isolation and speciation has been widely studied. Among the 26 genera of Palaearctic mammals, the blind mole rats genus Nannospalax has the highest karyotype variability with 74 chromosomal forms (CFs). Although these CFs have been described in detail, taxonomic effects of chromosomal rearrangements are still lacking, especially among 25 recorded CFs of European N. leucodon superspecies. As genetic discrepancies for most of them are missing, we analyze nucleotide sequence polymorphism of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene between eight N. leucodon CFs. Here we provide for the first time nucleotide sequence data for three CFs: monticola, montanoserbicus and syrmiensis using 40–57-year-old archived samples from our mammalian collection and thus demonstrate the usefulness of archived/museum samples as starting material for DNA analysis. The topology of the phylogenetic tree is congruent with the traditional taxonomic separation of recent blind mole rats with high support. Diversification of N. leucodon cluster into discrete subclusters—CFs—and the extent of evolutionary divergence among them are in accordance with previous findings of complete reproductive isolation between six CFs analyzed here. Additionally, the level of evolutionary divergence among six N. leucodon CFs resembles those recorded among clearly distinct Spalax species and four proposed species of N. ehrenbergi. These facts suggest that they could be cryptic species and bring attention to their conservation and natural resource protection.
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Acknowledgements
We are most grateful to Mihajlo Jeličić from Institute of Forensic Medicine Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, for expertise in technical assistance. This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Grant nos. 173025 and TT31009.
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42991_2020_19_MOESM1_ESM.docx
Here are listed the samples for which 16s rRNA gene sequences were imported from Gene Bank for our phylogenetic analysis, with data summarized from Hadid et al. (2012) and the database. Sample numbers from 12˗45 correspond to Figs. 1 and 2. * ISO country code (DOCX 21 kb)
42991_2020_19_MOESM2_ESM.docx
Estimates of evolutionary divergence over sequence pairs among Nannospalax chromosomal forms and the outgroups: 45 nucleotide sequences were grouped according to chromosomal form with the addition of two outgroup genera- Spalax and Rhizomys. Minimal and maximal values are shown in bold. Each color represents a relationship among CFs of one superspecies: N. leucodon, shaded in blue; N. xanthodon green (nucleotide sequences used for this analysis were reduced and grouped to six CFs with available data) and N. ehrenbergi red; the genus Spalax yellow. SE- serbicus; SY- syrmiensis; MY- montanosyrmiensis; MS- montanoserbicus; MO- monticola; TS- transsylvanicus; SR- srebarnensis; NE- nehringi; KA- karaman; VA- vasvarii; PA- pamukoren; TU- turcicus; BE- beysehir; GA- galili; GO- golani; JU- judaei; CA- carmeli. GR- Spalax graecus; MI-Spalax microphthalmus; AR- Spalax arenarius; RH- Rhizomys sinensis (DOCX 22 kb)
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Bugarski-Stanojević, V., Stamenković, G., Ćirović, D. et al. 16S rRNA gene polymorphism supports cryptic speciation within the lesser blind mole rat Nannospalax leucodon superspecies (Rodentia: Spalacidae). Mamm Biol 100, 315–324 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-020-00019-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-020-00019-9