The status of the lesser mouse-eared bat (Myotis blythii) populations occurring in northern mesopotamian plain and mid-zagros mountains in western of iran based on mitochondrial sequences

Morphological features and mitochondrial cytocrhome-b DNA sequences were analyzed to study geographic variation in two populations of the less mouse-eared bat Myotis blythii (Thomes, 1906) occurring in two contrasting environments in northern Mesopotamian plain and mid-zagros. Mitochondrial cytochrome-b fragments were amplified from wing samples to examine population boundaries and phylogenetic relationships with other such populations. DNA sequences for phylogenetic survey were used in PHYLIP software including maximum-parsimony, maximum-likelihood and neighbor-joining method. Comparison between cranial measurements from all specimens collected in these two areas indicates that some attributes have significant differences. Molecular analysis demonstrate that specimens from mid-zagros mountains show a greater genetic cohesiveness. However, phylogenetic analyses of cytochrome-b don’t reveal a clade of haplotypes from western populations in the northern mesopotamian plain.