Genetic distinctiveness of the Korean red-backed vole (Myodes regulus) from Korea, revealed by mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences

Abstract

To examine the taxonomic status of the Korean red-backed vole (Myodes regulus), the full cytochrome b sequences of 21 red-backed voles from Korea and northeast China were compared with the corresponding haplotypes from 12 species of Myodes and Eothenomys from GenBank. We identified five red-backed voles from Mount Changbai and Harbin as Myodes rufocanus and three from Harbin as M. rutilus, and we confirmed that the red-backed voles from Korea are M. regulus and not Eothenomys regulus. We found that M. regulus from Korea differed from the other five species of Myodes and that the interspecific distances between M. regulus and each of the two species from northeast China were 4.55% (M. rufocanus) and 11.1% (M. rutilus). We concluded that M. regulus is also genetically distinct and is an endemic species of Korea.