Phylogeography of Martes foina in Greece

Publication date: Available online 1 March 2019Source: Mammalian BiologyAuthor(s): Alexandros Tsoupas, Myrto Andreadou, Malamati A. Papakosta, Nikoletta Karaiskou, Dimitrios E. Bakaloudis, Evaggelos Chatzinikos, Anastasios Sakoulis, Alexandros Triantafyllidis, Christos G. VlachosABSTRACTMartes foina is a member of the family Mustelidae, found throughout Europe and central Asia. Attempts to study the genetic structure and the phylogeography of European M. foina populations have been recent, none of which took place in Greece. The present work aims to 1) study the genetic diversity of Greek Martes foina populations, 2) analyze the geographical distribution of the resulting lineages and 3) examine the existence of genetic support behind the presently accepted M. foina subspecies. Analyses carried out on 54 mitochondrial DNA sequences (1,468 bp) consisting of almost the entire cytochrome b gene (928 bp) and part of the mitochondrial control region (540 bp) indicate towards a demographic expansion of the species, which could be attributed to the existence of an ice age refugium in Greece during the Last Glacial Maximum. The haplotype and nucleotide diversity was found greater than in other studies on M. foina reinforcing the scenario of Greece being a biodiversity hotspot. The 18 different haplotypes that were found clustered in two clades, hinting towards the presence of more than one separate subrefugia within the Balkans. With respect to the genetic support for subspecies, the ...
Source: Mammalian Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research