Mitochondrial DNA Variation and Evolutionary Dynamics in Rodentia
Summary
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has become an indispensable tool for dissecting evolutionary dynamics across Rodentia, offering high mutation rates, maternal inheritance and the absence of recombination. Variation in mtDNA sequences—particularly in protein-coding genes such as cytochrome b and in the control region—underpins phylogeographic reconstructions, species delimitation and demographic inference across murine, cricetid and other rodent lineages worldwide. Haplogroup analyses reveal signatures of post-glacial expansion, cryptic diversity and range shifts, informing conservation priorities, pest-management strategies and the study of zoonotic reservoirs. Time-dependent biases in molecular rates, driven by purifying selection and mutational saturation, necessitate careful calibration using both recent and deep timescales. By integrating mitogenomic diversity with palaeoenvironmental and ecological data, researchers have clarified the influence of Quaternary climatic oscillations on speciation, lineage divergence and adaptive responses. The global significance of this research spans fundamental phylogenetic frameworks to practical applications in biodiversity monitoring and disease ecology.
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Mitochondrial DNA Variation and Evolutionary Dynamics in Rodentia publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in mitochondrial dna variation and evolutionary dynamics in rodentia across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Mitochondrial genome (mitogenome): Circular DNA in mitochondria inherited maternally and encoding key proteins for cellular respiration.
Cytochrome b (Cytb): A mitochondrial protein-coding gene widely used in phylogenetic and population genetic studies due to its moderate substitution rate.
Control region (D-loop): Hypervariable non-coding segment of mtDNA that regulates replication and is useful for fine-scale demographic inference.
Haplogroup: A lineage of related mitochondrial sequences defined by shared mutations that traces maternal ancestry.
Time-dependent molecular rate: The phenomenon where inferred mutation rates decline with increasing divergence time due to purifying selection and saturation.
References
- Phylogeography of the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius Pallas, 1771) in light of new data from central part of Northern Eurasia. PLOS ONE (2022).
- Characterization of Two New Apodemus Mitogenomes (Rodentia: Muridae) and Mitochondrial Phylogeny of Muridae. Diversity (2022).
- Temporal dynamics of mildly deleterious nonsynonymous substitutions in mitochondrial gene sequences in rodents and moles. Genes & Genetic Systems (2022).
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