Abstract
Large-bodied mole rats (Spalax) are a speciosus genus among obligate subterranean rodents, with seven currently recognized species, ranging from the Carpathians to the North Caucasus and further into the Caspian basin. Several conflicting hypotheses were proposed to explain the phylogenetic relationship among these taxa, mostly based on the subjective interpretation of the importance of certain morphologic characters in species delineation. We sequenced one mitochondrial (cytb) and one nuclear (IRBP) gene in six Spalax species, representing the most complete molecular dataset up to date. Both resulting phylogenies placed S. graecus, S. antiquus and S. giganteus at the base of the tree, while S. microphtalmus, S. zemni and S. arenarius appeared to have differentiated later in the evolutionary history of the genus. Cytb phylogeny supports monophyletic positions of all currently recognized species. According to the nuclear IRBP gene S. zemni and S. arenarius share similar haplotypes, which may represent either hybridization or recent separation from a common gene pool. The westernmost species S. antiquus and S. graecus represent the earliest split within the genus Spalax, indicating the possible origin of large-bodied blind mole rats from the South-West Europe. S. giganteus may represent the eastern relic of the ancient Spalax population. The central part of the genus distribution is inhabited by the most derived species: S. zemni + S. arenarius + S. microphthalmus. Large rivers of the Eastern Europe might have played a limited role in the distribution and speciation of mole rats and were crossed regularly by various genotypes.
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Data availability
Sampling data available at GBIF: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.15468/hfr4gw. Nucleotide sequences available at NCBI GenBank with accession numbers: OP882019 – OP882097.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Yuriy Yarovenko for providing a sample of S. giganteus and Nedko Nedyalkov, Kamil Omarov, Szilárd Sugár, Taras Pushkar, Áron Péter and late Viktor Busel for their help during the field work. Acknowledgements extend to two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions improved the manuscript.
Funding
The field sampling was conducted during the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund projects 160513635, 170515299, 170516242 to MR. While working on this project, ADS was supported by TKP2020-NKA-01 implemented with the support provided from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary, financed under the “Tématerületi Kiválósági Program 2022 funding scheme and by OTKA K-132794 of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office. No special funding was received at Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University, where the laboratory analysis was performed.
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MR and AY designed the study; MR, MG and ADS collected samples; OÇ performed laboratory experiments, supervised by AY; MG and MR analyzed the data; MR, AY and MG wrote the paper and all authors contributed substantially to the discussion of the final version of the manuscript.
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The study followed the best research practices and guidelines adopted in Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology of NAS of Ukraine. Permit no. 2021/5 approved during the project by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Ukraine and followed the guidelines USAMV CN Bioethics Committee (reg.no 23/21–09-2010), the EU 2010/63 and National Directives Ord. 28/31–08-2011 and National Law 206/2004 and were performed in the framework of the CNCSIS IDEI PCCE 7/2010 project in Romania. No permit is required for analyzing the DNA samples in Türkiye.
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Rusin, M., Çetintaş, O., Ghazali, M. et al. Underworld: evolution of blind mole rats in Eastern Europe. Mamm Biol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-024-00403-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42991-024-00403-9