Genie differentiation in spiny pocket mice of the Liomys pictus species-group (family Heteromyidae)

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Abstract
Electromorphic variation at 33 presumptive genetic loci within and among samples of the Liomys pictus species-group from western, southern, and eastern Mexico was examined. Levels of heterozygosity and polymorphism within samples were low when compared with those of rodents in general, and genie divergence among samples was very high, resulting in a discontinuous distribution of alleles among localities. We hypothesize that some of these geographic discontinuities result from intrinsic barriers to gene flow within L. pictus. Genie variation in or near zones of overlap suggest that the following pairs of taxa segregate as distinct biological species: L. p. plantinarensis and L. spectabilis; L. p. plantinarensis and L. p. pictus; L. p. hispidus and L. p. pictus. Liomys spectabilis is more similar genically to adjacent populations of L. p. pictus in northwestern México than samples of L. pictus are to each other. As presently defined, L. pictus appears to be paraphyletic and probably is a composite of several morphologically cryptic species.

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