New insights into the taxonomy and phylogeny of social voles inferred from mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences

We sequenced the entire cytochrome b gene in Microtus paradoxus from Turkmenistan and Microtus socialis from Crimea and Kalmykia. Phylogenetic relationships among social voles were reconstructed by the inclusion into analyses of a further 23 published haplotypes belonging to six species. The two probabilistic methods which were used in phylogenetic analyses, the Bayesian inference and Maximum Likelihood, yielded very similar results. Both trees showed two highly divergent lineages which were further subdivided into seven species. The socialis lineage encompassed four species (M. socialis, M. irani, M. anatolicus, and M. paradoxus), and the remaining three species clustered into the guenther…

Effects of the Shiitake Mushroom on Ontogenesis and Reproduction of the Social Vole Microtus socialis