Microhabitat partitioning of <em>Apodemus flavicollis</em> and <em>Myodes glareolus</em> in the sub-montane Alps: a preliminary assessment

Interspecific competition can cause partitioning in habitat use by sympatric species. This study gives a preliminary contribution to the understanding of microhabitat partitioning of <em>Apodemus flavicollis</em> and <em>Myodes glareolus</em> in sub-montane habitats. A total<br />of 1000 trap nights in the subalpine forest in the Austrian Ötscher mountain showed that high- and low-tree cover, high-shrub cover, plot location in or out of the forest, and distance from the forest edge were the variables which discriminated the sites of capture of the two species. <em>A. flavicollis</em> seemed to be more associated with the forest edge than <em>M. glareolus</em>, which, in contrast, preferred areas well within the forest with high tree and shrub cover. Our results suggest that the two species show some level of partitioning according to microhabitat structure

Distinct haplotype structure at the innate immune receptor Toll-like receptor 2 across bank vole populations and lineages in Europe

Parasite-mediated selection may contribute to the maintenance of genetic variation at host immune genes over long time scales. To date, the best evidence for the long-term maintenance of immunogenetic variation in natural populations comes from studies on the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, whereas evidence for such processes from other immune genes remains scarce. In the present study, we show that, despite pronounced population differentiation and the occurrence of numerous private alleles within populations, the innate immune gene Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2) displays a distinct haplotype structure in 21 bank vole (Myodes glareolus) populations across Europe. Haplotypes from all populations grouped in four clearly differentiated clusters, with the three main clusters co-occurring in at least three previously described mitochondrial lineages. This pattern indicates that the distinct TLR2 haplotype structure may precede the split of the mitochondrial lineages 0.19–0.56 Mya and suggests that haplotype clusters at this innate immune receptor are maintained over prolonged time in wild bank vole populations