An investigation of the phylogeography and the evolutionary history of Miniopterus schreibersii (Mammalia: Chiroptera) using nuclear microsatellites

Miniopterus schreibersii is a cave-dwelling species, which is well suited for phylogeographic investigations at a large geographic scale, because of its subcos- mopolitan distribution and it consisting of lower taxa, many of which have been elevated to species level recently. In this study, 496 samples that were collected from the entire range of M. schreibersii were analyzed using nuclear microsatellite markers to investigate the taxonomy, evolutionary history and conservation of the species. In this way, the phylogeography of the species was examined in detail, across its whole global distribution area, in order to expand the existing knowledge of its phylogeographic history significantly and to provide the necessary validation of the studies that only made use of the mitochondrial markers. The examination of these nuclear loci confirmed the findings of previous studies and provided a more complete picture of the species‟ genetic distribution. Significant differentiations of the nuclear DNA were detected between 10 regions, North Africa, Lebanon, Cyprus, Anatolia, Russia, Thrace- Balkans, Slovakia, Italy, France, and Iberia, where the sample populations were located. This study also confirms the pattern of local differentiation previously detected in mitochondrial DNA.