Pan-African phylogeny of Mus (subgenus Nannomys) reveals one of the most successful mammal radiations in Africa

0437959 - ÚBO 2015 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Bryja, Josef - Mikula, Ondřej - Šumbera, R. - Meheretu, Y. - Aghová, Tatiana - Lavrenchenko, L. A. - Mazoch, Vladimír - Oguge, N. - Mbau, J. S. - Welegerima, K. - Amundala, N. - Colyn, M. - Leirs, H. - Verheyen, E.
Pan-African phylogeny of Mus (subgenus Nannomys) reveals one of the most successful mammal radiations in Africa.
BMC Evolutionary Biology. Roč. 14, č. 256 (2014), s. 256. ISSN 1471-2148. E-ISSN 1471-2148
R&D Projects: GA ČR GAP506/10/0983
Institutional support: RVO:68081766
Keywords : Biogeography * Tropical Africa * Molecular phylogeny * Pygmy mice * Plio-Pleistocene climatic fluctuations * Divergence timing * Muridae (Murinae) * Mus minutoides * Phylogeography * DNA barcoding
Subject RIV: EG - Zoology
Impact factor: 3.368, year: 2014

We performed comprehensive genetic analysis of 657 individuals of Nannomys collected at approximately 300 localities across the whole sub-Saharan Africa. Phylogenetic reconstructions based on mitochondrial (CYTB) and nuclear (IRBP) genes identified five species groups and three monotypic ancestral lineages. We provide evidence for important cryptic diversity and we defined and mapped the distribution of 27 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) that may correspond to presumable species. Biogeographical reconstructions based on data spanning all of Africa modified the previous evolutionary scenarios. First divergences occurred in Eastern African mountains soon after the colonization of the continent and the remnants of these old divergences still occur there, represented by long basal branches of M. (previously Muriculus) imberbis and two undescribed species from Ethiopia and Malawi. The radiation in drier lowland habitats associated with the decrease of body size is much younger, occurred mainly in a single lineage (called the minutoides group, and especially within the species M. minutoides), and was probably linked to aridification and climatic fluctuations in middle Pliocene/Pleistocene. We discovered very high cryptic diversity in African pygmy mice making the genus Mus one of the richest genera of African mammals. Our taxon sampling allowed reliable phylogenetic and biogeographic reconstructions that (together with detailed distributional data of individual MOTUs) provide a solid basis for further evolutionary, ecological and epidemiological studies of this important group of rodents.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0241427