Cg. Faulkes et al., MICROGEOGRAPHICAL AND MACROGEOGRAPHICAL GENETIC-STRUCTURE OF COLONIESOF NAKED MOLE-RATS HETEROCEPHALUS-GLABER, Molecular ecology, 6(7), 1997, pp. 615-628
Patterns of genetic structure in eusocial naked mole-rat populations w
ere quantified within and among geographically distant populations usi
ng multilocus DNA fingerprinting and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequenc
e analysis. Individuals within colonies were genetically almost monomo
rphic, sharing the same mtDNA control region haplotype and having coef
ficients of band sharing estimated from DNA fingerprints ranging from
0.93 to 0.99. Family analysis of a hybrid captive colony of naked mole
-rats with increased levels of genetic variability using multilocus DN
A fingerprinting gave results consistent with Mendelian inheritance, a
nd has revealed for the first time that multiple paternity can occur.
In a survey of wild colonies from Ethiopia, Somalia and locations in n
orthern and southern Kenya, we have examined mtDNA control region sequ
ence variation in 42 individuals from 15 colonies, and together with m
ultilocus DNA fingerprinting and mtDNA cytochrome-b sequence analysis
in selected individuals have shown that these populations show conside
rable genetic divergence. Most of the variance in sequence divergence
was found to be between geographical locations (Phi(ct) = 0.68) and th
ere was a significant correlation between sequence divergence and geog
raphical separation of haplotypes. Six colonies from Mtito Andei in so
uthern Kenya shared the same control region haplotype, suggesting a re
cent common maternal ancestor. In contrast, out of four colonies at Le
rata in north Kenya, three haplotypes were identified, and phylogeneti
c analysis suggests that this area may be a zone where two distinct li
neages are in close proximity. Genetic distances were maximal between
Ethiopian and southern Kenyan populations at 5.8% for cytochrome-b, an
d are approaching interspecific values seen between other Bathyergids.