The study of Molecular, and morphological characterization of fruit bats (new record of Rousettus leschenaultii in Iran)

Abstract

Introduction: The Egyptian fruit-eating bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) is one of the most famous species that is widespread in the southern half of Iran. The taxonomic status of the Egyptian fruit bat (R. aegyptiacus) has been much debated. In this study, taxonomic situation of fruit bats of the genus Rousettus in Iran was examined.
Materials and Methods: Morphometric analyses were performed using seven external and 21 craniodental characters on the samples of the fruit bats from Sistan and Baluchestan province, southeast Iran. The mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) marker was applied to assess phylogenetic relationships between species of the genus Rousettus.
Results: Morphological characteristics and molecular analyses revealed unexpected diversity within fruit bats in the south Iran and two species of megabats including R. aegyptiacus and R. leschenaultii were identified to be distributed in the south Iran. Phylogenetic trees inferred from BI and ML analyses of cyt b locus revealed that R. aegyptiacus populations were divided into five lineages and the Iranian population of R. aegyptiacus clustered with the Middle East samples.
Conclusion: Demographic analyses revealed a strong signature of population expansion of R. aegyptiacus and R. leschenaultii and also colonization of the Middle East Population of R. aegyptiacus from few refugia following extensive population bottleneck. We found very low genetic variation between different populations of R. leschenaultii throughout its range.