The influence of life history and climate driven diversification on the mtDNA phylogeographic structures of two southern AfricanMastomysspecies (Rodentia: Muridae: Murinae)

Abstract

The phylogeographic patterns of small mammals in southern Africa are frequently disjunct. This pattern is predominately attributed to vicariant geographical barriers coupled to climate driven diversification. To gain further insights into this hypothesis, we embarked on a comparative mtDNA phylogeographic study of two common rodent species in southern Africa, Mastomys natalensis and Mastomys coucha. Parsimony haplotype networks and SplitsTrees of mtDNA cytochrome oxidase I data showed a large degree of haplotype sharing throughout the sampling range. Within southern Africa, we found no conclusive evidence to support geographic vicariance as a contributing factor towards Mastomys speciation. We proposed that the regional phylogeographic structures detected for M. natalensis and M. coucha are the result of weak isolation by distance coupled to repeated expansions and contractions of suitable habitat. Both species probably survived in multiple refugia during unfavourable periods and mismatch distributions show signs of population expansion. Mitochondrial DNA nucleotide diversity values (π) show marked differences between the two species (M. natalensis: 0.003 and M. coucha: 0.468), and M. coucha also shows a higher level of population differentiation in AMOVA analyses. These differences are most likely due to life history discrepancies between the two species. Mastomys coucha is regarded to be more of a habitat specialist when compared to M. natalensis, and this probably places a higher constraint on M. coucha dispersal abilities. © 2014 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 114, 58–68.

Comparative Genomic Characterization of the Multimammate Mouse Mastomys coucha

“…We also sequenced at low-coverage (11×) Mastomys natalensis to determine genus level conservation. We found an even higher rate of heterozygosity, 13.41 per kb, compared with our M. coucha collected in the wild, suggesting that this species has a higher population size, as observed in a previous study (Sands et al. 2015).…”

Comparative phylogeography of parasitic Laelaps mites contribute new insights into the specialist-generalist variation hypothesis (SGVH)

“…Irrespective of the strong structure observed in the latter, gene flow patterns of parasites that use multiple hosts as part of their life cycle are predicted to be largely influenced by the vagility of their most mobile host [28–30]. In our case, gene flow in L. muricola should largely overlap with the “panmictic” pattern obtained in Mastomys species [15]. …”

“…The strength of our comparative approach lies in the fact that the parasites used in this study overlap in range (keeping environmental conditions constant), they have very similar life history characteristics, and published data on host dispersal and evolutionary history are available [5, 15, 25, 26]. It is proposed that this study will provide more direct insights into the effects of host specialization versus host movement on the genetic diversity and population structure of nest bound ectoparasites.…”

The effect of host vicariance and parasite life history on the dispersal of the multi‐host ectoparasite, Hyalomma truncatum

“…This finding suggests that palaeoclimatic changes that gave rise to genetic differentiation between the mesic east and xeric west regions in mammals (see Russo et al, 2010;du Toit et al, 2012;Lorenzen et al, 2012;Montgelard & Matthee, 2012), species-specific ectoparasites (see du Toit et al, 2013 andEngelbrecht et al, 2016) and generalist ectoparasite (see van der Mescht et al, 2015) are not influential enough to also effect H. truncatum. Indeed, several of the larger ungulates (Lorenzen et al, 2012) and some of the smaller host taxa (Sands et al, 2015) show a pattern of genetic panmixia in southern Africa. In the absence of any additional biogeographical barriers to dispersal, the latter can be used to explain the close evolutionary connectivity among all sampling sites in this region.…”

“…Amplifications were performed in a GeneAmp PCR 2700 thermal cycler (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) following Sands et al (2015) with varied annealing temperatures ( Table 2). Aliquots of PCR products were separated by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis and, after excision, purified using a BioFlux, Biospin Gel Extraction Kit (Bioer Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China).…”