title: Multilocus phylogeography of the European ground squirrel: cryptic interglacial refugia of continental climate in Europe.
abstract: The theory of classical and cryptic Pleistocene refugia is based mainly on historical changes in temperature, and the refugia are usually defined within a latitudinal gradient. However, the gradient of oceanic-continental climate (i.e. longitudinal) was also significantly variable during glacial cycles with important biotic consequences. Range-wide phylogeography of the European ground squirrel (EGS) was used to interpret the evolutionary and palaeogeographical history of the species in Europe and to shed light on its glacial-interglacial dynamic. The EGS is a steppe-inhabiting species and the westernmost member of the genus in the Palaearctic region. We have analysed 915 specimens throughout the present natural range by employing mitochondrial DNA sequences (cytochrome b gene) and 12 nuclear microsatellite markers. The reconstructed phylogeography divides the species into two main geographical groups, with deep substructuring within both groups. Bulgaria is the centre of the ancestral area, and it also has the highest genetic diversity within the species. The northernmost group of the EGS survived in the southern part of Pannonia throughout several glacial-interglacial cycles. Animals from this population probably repeatedly colonized areas further to the north and west during the glacial periods, while in the interglacial periods, the EGS distribution contracted back to this Pannonian refugium. The EGS thus represents a species with a glacial expansion/interglacial contraction palaeogeographical dynamics, and the Pannonian and southeastern Balkanian steppes are supported as cryptic refugia of continental climate during Pleistocene interglacials.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.|Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Květná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Štěpánka
authors.initials: Š
authors.lastname: Říčanová
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Science, 1 Tzar Osvoboditel blvb, 1000, Sofia, Bulgaria.
authors.forename: Yordan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koshev
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Oldřich
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Říčan
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biological Research Siniša Stanković, University of Belgrade, Bulevar despota Stefana 142, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Nada
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ćosić
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia.
authors.forename: Duško
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ćirović
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: František
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sedláček
authors.affiliation: Institute of Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Květná 8, 603 65, Brno, Czech Republic.|Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bryja
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002980:Climate; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005060:Europe; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D046448:Ice Cover; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D012589:Sciuridae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D045303:Cytochromes b
keywords: Sciuridae; biogeography; microsatellites; mtDNA; souslik