The Phylogenetic Evolution Analysis Of Meriones And Desmodillus In China

Meriones and Desmodillus belong to Cricetidae in Rodentia. There are four species in Meriones in China as follow: M. tamariscinus, M. unguiculataus, M. libycus and M. meridianus. Desmodillus is a monotypic genus, just contains D. auricularis alone.We extracted, amplificated and sequenced the mitochondrial genome(mitogenome) from the muscle tissue samples of M. tamariscinus, M. libycus, M. meridianus and D. auricularis which collected from the wild. The mitogenome of M. unguiculataus was downloaded from the Genbank. Then made the analysis of mitogenomic structure, base composition and G+C content for the five gerbils respectively. What’s more, phylogenetic analysis was done based on the mitogenome for the five gerbils and estimated divergence time with fossil records respectively.Five gerbils were clustered into one clade, stemmed from 2.96 Myr and had common ancestor in the phylogenetic tree constructed by the mitogenome, total protein and D-loop sequences of species in Gerbillinae and Cricetinae. M. tamariscinus was the earliest species and the origin of Meriones in China. D. auricularis was between M. tamariscinus and M. libycus, which was divided in 2.56 Myr. M. libycus was separated in 2.12 Myr. M. unguiculataus and M. meridianus were divided in 1.75 Myr in the evolutionary history of Meriones. The gerbils had a shorter evolutionary history in China and its originating time was later than that of gerbils in other areas according to historical migration and proliferation of gerbils in a global range. M. libycus collected from Kelamayi had a closed historical position with that in Saudi Arabia on the influence of gerbils migration and geographical environmental changes. Its differentiation time was earlier than that in Tulufan. The reason for D. auricularis belonged to Meriones maybe it had different evolution history caused by Chinese unique geographical environmental changes or different molecular markers used for lack of studies in both morphological and molecular data in systematic evolution of gerbils in China.This paper first applied the mitogenome to phylogenetic evolution research of the subordinate taxon in Rodentia first, which stated the phylogeny and evolutionary history of five gerbils in the level of genome. It reflected the superiority of mitogenome as a molecular marker in solving the systematic evolutionary relationship between proximal species. Our study would provide important reference to the phylogeny and other related studies of gerbils and play a vital role in reconstructing the phylogenetic relationship of Rodentia and even mammals.