Allozyme variation and divergence in the phyllotine rodent Calomys hummelincki (Husson, 1960)

The aim of the present study was to assess the degree of genetic variation and divergence among six populations of Calomys hummelincki, a phyllotine rodent distributed in northern South America. With this information we will try to evaluate the two hypotheses of possible colonization and differentiation of this group of rodents postulated by Baskin and Reig. We studied 34 loci by electrophoretic analysis: 21 were monomorphic for all populations and 13 were polymorphic in at least one population, being P _1% = 21.6% the mean value for all populations. The mean value of heterozygosity per locus was H = 0.075. Low values of genetic distance were observed among populations of the Llanos region (0.001 < D < 0.006). There was a larger genetic distance (D = 0.024) between the population from Isiro, in the northwestern semiarid region, and those from the Llanos region. The insular population of Aruba displayed the lowest value of genetic distance with the population from Isiro (D = 0.014). The specimens from Sipao, on the right side of the Orinoco river, displayed the highest values of genetic distances in comparison with other populations of C. hummelincki (0.070 < D < 0.095). The relatively high differentiation was due to the fixation of new alleles, not found in other populations of C. hummelincki, at loci Idh-1 and Est-2. F-statistics and Nm values indicated reduced gene flow among the populations sampled. Despite the limited data, the results seem to support Reig's hypothesis about south to north colonization of genus Calomys in South America. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.