Phylogeographic structure of the Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus L.): Late Pleistocene connections between Caucasus and Western European populations.

The Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus) is one of the most endangered mammals in Western and Central Europe. Its genetic diversity in Russia and Kazakhstan was investigated for the first time. The analysis of sequences of an mtDNA control region and cytochrome b gene revealed at least three phylogenetic lineages. Most of the species range (approximately 3 million km2), including central Russia, Crimea, the Ural region, and northern Kazakhstan), is inhabited by a single, well-supported phylogroup, E0. Phylogroup E1, previously reported from southeastern Poland and western Ukraine, was first described from Russia (Bryansk Province). E0 and E1 are sister lineages but both are monophyletic and separated by considerable genetic distance. Hamsters inhabiting Ciscaucasia represent a separate, distant phylogenetic lineage, named "Caucasus". It is sister to the North phylogroup from Western Europe and the contemporary phylogeography for this species is discussed considering new data. These data enabled us to develop a new hypothesis to propose that in the Late Pleistocene, the continuous range of the Common hamster in the northern Mediterranean extended from the central and southern parts of modern France to the Caucasus; however, its distribution was subsequently interrupted, likely because of climate change

Divergence time (kya) between the Common hamsters phylogenetic lineages as evaluated based on suggested (1) <i>Tscherskia triton and (Cricetulus migratorius + Allocricetulus eversmanni + Cricetus cricetus)</i> clade and (2) Pannonia and North-type lineages separation time.

<p>Divergence time (kya) between the Common hamsters phylogenetic lineages as evaluated based on suggested (1) <i>Tscherskia triton and (Cricetulus migratorius + Allocricetulus eversmanni + Cricetus cricetus)</i> clade and (2) Pannonia and North-type lineages separation time.</p

The hypothetical ranges of the Common hamster hyplogroups: Vertical hatching–Late Pleistocene Northern Mediterranean; horizontal hatching–south-western LGM refugium; filled with colors–modern (mid-20th century).

<p>Note: Atlantic ocean, Mediterranean, Black and Azov sea max. regression, Caspian sea max. transgression coast line shown with the dashed line.</p

Sample distribution map.

<p>Bryansk Province in Western Russia is indicated by a square, localities from the Ciscaucasian area by triangles, and the others by circles. In the breakout: Nalchik City is shown by dark blue, the Nalchik surrounds (restricted by 25-km radius) by light blue, Kislovodsk by red, and other localities by yellow.</p

List of samples localities.

<p>Point numbers correspond to <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0187527#pone.0187527.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>.</p

Cladogram resulting from Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of haplotypes of concatenated sequences of <i>cytb</i> gene and control region for hamsters within the investigated area.

<p>Support values are given if they exceeded 0.5 for nodes that included three or more haplotypes. For GenBank accession numbers see <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0187527#pone.0187527.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>.</p

Phylogram resulting from Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of 904 bp cyt<i>b</i> gene fragment haplotypes.

<p>Support values are given if they exceeded 0.5 for nodes that included three or more haplotypes.</p