Primers to amplify partially the mitochondrial genes coding for cytochrome b, 12S-rRNA and the D-loop were screened in twelve small mammal species from southern Africa. We also tested the possibilities of molecular sex identification using primers of the SRY. The study includes five species of murids of the genera Aethomys, Thallomys, Rhabdomys and Saccostomus, four gerbils of the genera Desmodillus, Tatera, Gerbillurus, one dormouse (Graphiurus) and two macroscelids (Macroscelides and Elephantulus). We provide information on the primers with modifications, lab protocols and we give an overview of the obtained sequences: four cytochrome b sequences and five 12S-rDNA sequences of three species and 23 D-loop sequences of five species. Sex specific fragments of SRY could be amplified in three species of Murinae and the dormouse.
After the last glacial retreat in Europe, multiple recolonizations led to intraspecific differentiation in many of the recolonizing taxa. Here we investigate the genetic diversification across central Europe in two recolonizing taxa, the tephritid fruit flies Rhagoletis alternata (Fallén, 1814) and Carpomya schineri (Loew, 1856), which attack rose hips. Analysis of amplified and sequenced fragments of the mitochondrial genes encoding cytochrome oxidase I (800 bp), cytochrome oxidase II (470 bp) and cytochrome b (450 bp), indicate that all the individuals of R. alternata (n = 21) collected from across Europe share the same haplotype. Two individuals of C. schineri form Berlin, which is further north of the range than previously reported in the literature, differ from the other individuals (n = 13) in one nucleotide position on the cytochrome oxidase II gene fragment. This level of genetic variation in sequences with a summed length of 1720 bp is unexpectedly lower than in other insect taxa (n = 63). This might have been caused by a selective sweep by a cytoplasmic symbiont such as Wolbachia, or a recent range expansion associated with a host shift or a single recolonization event.