Determination of Genetic Diversity in Apodemus mystacinus (Mammalia: Rodentia) based on SSRs

The aim of this study is to determine the genetic diversity of species in Rocky mouse, Apodemus mystacinus, using SSR (the simple sequence repeat) loci and to reveal the reasons of this variations, if any. In this study, 69 A. mystacinus samples were studied collected from 18 localities in Turkey. 7 SSR loci were used to determine the genetic diversity of A. mystacinus. As a result of this study, A. mystacinus includes 2 genetic groups that indicate the presence of two subspecies as A. m. mystacinus that is distributed in western Anatolia and A. m. euxinus in eastern Anatolia. This result also supports that one of the micro refugium areas is eastern Turkey and the other western and southern Turkey