| Abstrakt: |
To assess genetic divergence of Tamias sibiricus populations from continental East Asia, we first obtained the IRBP, 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA sequences of T. sibiricus from Korea, NE China, near by Russia, and Mongolia and the cytochrome b sequences from Mongolia. These sequences and our previous data on the c-myc, cytochrome b, and control region sequences of T. sibiricus were compared to the corresponding sequences of T. sibiricus, obtained from GenBank. Tamias s. barberi from Korea was distinct in the three conserved genes (Jukes-Cantor distance of 0.49% in IRBP, 4.42% distance in 12S rRNA and 5.75% distance in 16S rRNA), and we considered that concordant divergences of the six markers in T. s. barberi are mainly due to the isolation caused by geographical barriers near the northern boundary of the Korean Peninsula, once they entered into Korea. Tamias s. barberi, with 5.05% divergence in the combined sequences (5010 bp) and six fixed site differences in the c-myc and IRBP genes, was identified as an evolutionary significant unit. On the other hand, T. s. orientalis from NE China and nearby Russia was not divergent from T. s. sibiricus from Mongolia, including identical sequences in four out of 10 IRBP and all c-myc alleles. Thus, we proposed further analyses to clarify the subspecies status of T. s. orientalis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
