Genetic differentiation and speciation in spiny mice, Acomys.

Allozymic variation in proteins encoded by 35 loci was analyzed electrophoretically in specimens from seven localities, involving five populations of Acomys cahirinus, 2n=38; two populations of A. cahirinus, 2n=36; and three populations of A. russatus, 2n=66, each population of the latter being sympatric with A. cahirinus. The seven localities represent a general southward transect of increasing aridity from N Israel to S Sinai. The geographical patterns and climatic correlates and predictors of genic variation in Acomys in Israel and Sinai support the environmental theory of genetic variation; the genetic distances found support a speciation theory that allows for species formation with relatively minor genic change in structural genes.-from Author