Fershteh Ghaderi

Abstract

Phylogenetic relationships among Iranian species of Allactaga genus (Dipodidae) were studied using motochondrial cytochrome b and cranial measurements. Six species of the genus Allactaga occur in Iran: A euphratica, A firouzi, A hotsoni, A williamsi, A elater and A toussi. There has been debate on the taxonomy of these species and the status of A firouzi as a valid species has been in question. Genetic specimens from the type locality of A firouzi along with samples collected from other parts of Isfahan province (Shahreza, Varzaneh, Hanna, Ramsheh) were used for genetic analyses. Pcr reaction was performed with special primer of cytb and produced a segment with 977 bp lenght. Phylogenetic trees were generated using Neigborhood joining, Minimum evolution, Maximum parsimony and Bayesian method. To examine inter-family evolutionary relationship, cytochrome b gene code of other species of Dipodidae (Eozapus, Napaeozapus, Jaculus, Dipusthat) obtained from NCBI were used in phylogenetic analyses. Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus were used as outgroups. A firouzi was separated from A hotsoni in the phylogenetic tree. However, principal component analysis performed on the cranial measurements of the Allactaga species could not separate A firouzi from A hotsoni. This emphasizes the importance of genetic studies for understanding the evolutionary relationship among species of Dipodidae.