THE CAIRO SPINY MOUSE ACOMYS-CAHIRINUS SHOWS A STRONG AFFINITY TO THEMONGOLIAN GERBIL MERIONES-UNGUICULATUS

The classification of the African spiny mice (genus Acomys) within the Muridae family of rodents has been fraught with controversy. Morpholo gical data suggest a close affinity between this group and true old wo rld mice of the genus Mus. However, the combined results of immunologi cal, biochemical, and DNA melting studies suggest that spiny mice shou ld not even be considered as members of the Murinae subfamily. To furt her elucidate the position of the spiny mice within the rodent phyloge netic tree, we performed a direct sequence comparison of a 583-nucleot ide homologous region from the spiny mouse type species Acomys cahirin us and five other representative rodent species. Our results provide i ncontrovertible evidence to support the contention that the spiny mous e is more closely related to the Mongolian gerbil Meriones unguiculatu s than it is to Mlrs musculus.