Mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence variations and population structure of Siberian chipmunk (Tamias sibiricus) in Northeastern Asia and population substructure in South Korea.
Twenty-five chipmunk species occur in the world, of which only the Siberian chipmunk, Tamias sibiricus, inhabits Asia. To investigate mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence variations and population structure of the Siberian chipmunk in northeastern Asia, we examined mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences (1140 bp) from 3 countries. Analyses of 41 individuals from South Korea and 33 individuals from Russia and northeast China resulted in 37 haplotypes and 27 haplotypes, respectively. There were no shared haplotypes between South Korea and Russia--northeast China. Phylogenetic trees and network analysis showed 2 major maternal lineages for haplotypes, referred to as the S and R lineages. Haplotype grouping in each cluster was nearly coincident with its geographic affinity. In particular, 3 distinct groups were found that mostly clustered in the northern, central and southern parts of South Korea. Nucleotide diversity of the S lineage was twice that of lineage R. The divergence between S and R lineages was estimated to be 2.98-0.98 Myr. During the ice age, there may have been at least 2 refuges in South Korea and Russia--northeast China. The sequence variation between the S and R lineages was 11.3% (K2P), which is indicative of specific recognition in rodents. These results suggest that T. sibiricus from South Korea could be considered a separate species. However, additional information, such as details of distribution, nuclear genes data or morphology, is required to strengthen this hypothesis.
Conservation Genome Resource Bank for Korean Wildlife, Brain Korea 21 Program for Veterinary Science and College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea.
Mu-Yeong
MY
Lee
Andrey A
AA
Lissovsky
Sun-Kyung
SK
Park
Ekaterina V
EV
Obolenskaya
Nikolay E
NE
Dokuchaev
Ya-Ping
YP
Zhang
Li
L
Yu
Young-Jun
YJ
Kim
Inna
I
Voloshina
Alexander
A
Myslenkov
Tae-Young
TY
Choi
Mi-Sook
MS
Min
Hang
H
Lee
D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005843:Geography; D007723:Korea; D010802:Phylogeny; D012426:Russia; D012589:Sciuridae / Q000235:genetics*
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D045303:Cytochromes b