Harvest mouse Micromys minutus of the Urals and Western Siberia: range boundaries and genetic diversity

Pilevich D.S., Yalkovskaya L.E., Sibiryakov P.A., Borodin A.V.

P. 44-52

As a result of the analysis of the cyt b complete sequences of 26 harvest mice Micromys minutus from 13 localities of the Urals and Western Siberia, the distribution boundaries and genetic diversity of the Russia phylogeographic lineage have been clarified. The distribution of the lineage in the south of the central part of Northern Eurasia from the Tyva Depression to the Southern Trans-Urals coincides with the southern boundary of the species range. The northern area of species distribution was previously considered to be limited to the taiga zone. However, our study showed that the northern boundary of the range passes through the subpolar regions of the West Siberian Plain and Cis-Urals in the zone of modern forest-tundra. Phylogeographic analysis with the inclusion of new data has confirmed the existence of four previously described phylogenetic lineages (Europe, Russia, Taiwan, Korea-Japan), the genetic diversity and demographic analysis of which have confirmed the suggestion that the modern species genetic structure and range has formed during the Late Pleistocene–Holocene period.DOI: 10.15298/rusjtheriol.22.1.05

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