Phylogenetic relationships between Afrotropical and Palaearctic Crocidura species inferred from Inter-SINE-PCR

The relationships between Afrotropical and Palaearctic Crocidurinae species have been evaluated on the basis of inter-SINE-PCR (IS-PCR). Two SINE families have been studied: mammalian interspersed repeats (MIR) and a short retroposon SOR, specific to the family Soricidae. Use of neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony analyses allowed us to recognize three major groupings: (i) 50-chromosome African species (C. parvipes and C. olivieri) and 28-chromosome European C. leucodon; (ii) species endemic to Ethiopia (36-chromosome C. thalia, C. glassi, Crocidura sp. B, united with C. macmillani and C. baileyi); (iii) Palaearctic 40-chromosome species group. Therefore, the major groupings of Crocidura shrews in the phylogenetic analysis of IS-PCR results cannot be distinguished as Palaearctic and Afrotropical groups of species: European C. leucodon unites with African 50-chromosome species with a high bootstrap support. The affiliation of Suncus murinus with Eurasian grouping is only supported by low bootstrap values.