[Revision of the Taxonomic Position of the Olkhon Mountain Vole (Rodentia, Cricetidae)].

Abstract

An analysis of the phylogenetic position of the Olkhon mountain vole (Alticolaolchonensis Litvinov 1960) using the sequences of four nuclear (BRCA, GHR, LCAT, and IRBP) and one mitochondrial (cyt. b) genes was undertaken. It was noted that, until recently, multiple studies of the systematic position of this vole had been based exclusively on morphological data, while the major taxonomic traits contained contradictory information regarding both the subgeneric status of this species and its genus. It was established that the molecular data and morphology data allow us to attribute the Lake Baikal vole unambiguously to the nominative subgenus Alticola instead of Aschizomys.