Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation and the specific identification of deer mice (Peromyscus) from Triangle Island, British Columbia, Canada

Abstract

Nucleotide sequences from the ND3, ND4L, and ND4 genes of the mitochondrial DNA of deer mice (Peromyscus) from Triangle Island, British Columbia, were analyzed and compared with those from reference samples of the geographically proximal species Peromyscus maniculatus and Peromyscus keeni. Variation among the deer mice from Triangle Island comprised four sequences with a total sequence divergence of 0.093%. One of these sequences characterized 52% of the 27 individuals analyzed; each of the other sequence variants occurred in smaller, but similar, proportions of the population sample. Phylogenetic and distance-clustering analyses uniformly grouped the sequences from the Triangle Island population and placed them within a cluster otherwise comprised of the P. keeni reference samples. The reference samples of P. maniculatus clustered distinctly and significantly outside of the P. keeni/Triangle Island deer mouse assemblage. These data indicate that, in contradiction to their current formal recognition as P. maniculatus, the deer mice from Triangle Island are representative of, and should be taxonomically relegated to, P. keeni.