Variability of DNA Repeats in Four Species
of Common Voles

A. I. Shevchenko, S. Ya. Slobodyanyuk, and S. M. Zakiyan

Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, 630090 Russia;
E-mail: slobod@bionet.nsc.ru

Received October 30, 1998; in final form, April 19, 1999

Abstract—The electrophoretic DNA repeat patterns revealed by hydrolysis with different restriction endonu-
cleases of genomic DNA were compared in four species of common voles, genus Microtus (M. arvalis, M. ros-
siaemeridionalis, M. transcaspicus, and M. kirgisorum). The patterns of M. rossiaemeridionalis and M. tran-
scaspicus were the most similar, which confirms the conclusion about the considerable genetic similarity of
these species based on the cytogenetic comparison and interspecific crosses. The similarity of the patterns
between other vole species is also in accord with the present concept of phylogeny of this vole group. Mono-
mers of the tandem repeat family MSAT-160 revealed in all four vole species by HindIII hydrolysis were cloned
and sequenced. Basing on the similarity of nucleotide sequences, all the monomers were subdivided in four sub-
families differing in nucleotide substitutions in certain positions, as compared with the consensus. Three
MSAT-160 subfamilies include the monomers of at least three vole species. The monomers of M. arvalis make
a separate subfamily. The occurrence of monomers belonging to different subfamilies in dimeric clones suggest
that MSAT-160 evolved as a higher-order repeat unit.

Key words: DNA repeats, taxoprint, concerted evolution, common voles

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