Abstract
Apodemus (mice) and Rattus (rats) are the top rodent reservoirs for zoonoses in China, yet little is known about their diversity. We reexamined the alpha diversity of these two genera based on a new collection of specimens from China and their cyt b sequences in GenBank. We also tested whether species could be identified using external and craniodental measurements exclusively. Measurements from 147 specimens of Apodemus and 233 specimens of Rattus were used for morphological comparisons. We analysed 74 cyt b sequences of Apodemus and 100 cyt b sequences of Rattus to facilitate phylogenetic estimations. Results demonstrated that nine species of Apodemus and seven species of Rattus, plus a new subspecies of Rattus nitidus, are distributed in China. Principal component analysis using external and craniodental measurements revealed that measurements alone could not separate the recognized species. The occurrence of Rattus pyctoris in China remains uncertain.
Highlights
Small volant and nonvolant mammals are important components of ecological communities and play vital roles in ecological systems
In the first principal component analyses (PCAs), using all 12 measurements (n=139), the first and second principal components accounted for 57.6% and 11.7% of total variation, respectively, with all other principal components having eigenvalues smaller than 1
PC1 was positively correlated with all craniodental variables, and PC2 was positively correlated with external measurements
Summary
Small volant and nonvolant mammals are important components of ecological communities and play vital roles in ecological systems. They are among the most common agents for infections and, have strongly affected human history. More recent examples of small mammal zoonoses include severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by a coronavirus and Ebola hemorrhagic fever caused by Ebolavirus, with hosts including, but not limited to, bats and civets (Klein & Calisher, 2007; Menachery et al, 2015). Rodent-borne diseases such as plague and hantavirus have made considerable contributions to human illnesses and are responsible for more deaths than all wars combined (Klein & Calisher, 2007). Because different species have specific immune systems and different levels of tolerance to zoonotic infections, identification of rodent reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens is a high priority (Meerburg et al, 2009)
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