Allozyme variations in Anatolian populations and cytotypes of the blind mole rats (Nannospalax) Teoman Kankılıç a, * , Tolga Kankılıç b , Mustafa S € ozen c , Ercüment Çolak d a Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Ni gde University, Ni gde, Turkey b Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey c Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Bülent Ecevit University, Turkey d Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey article info Article history: Received 10 March 2014 Accepted 20 December 2014 Available online Keywords: Nannospalax Allozyme Turkey abstract Enzymatic proteins encoded by 28 putative loci in 326 samples of 12 mol rat cytotypes collected from 97 localities in Anatolia were investigated by standard horizontal starch-gel electrophoresis. A total of 61 alleles were determined for 28 isozyme loci and 23 of the 28 were polymorphic. Eight of the 23 polymorphic loci were agreeable to the HardyeWein- berg equilibrium. It was determined that deviations from the HardyeWeinberg equilib- rium in the examined populations were due to a heterozygote deficiency. It was revealed by allozyme analyses that mole rat populations in Anatolia have formed 4 cytotypes groups, represented by 4 species (Nannospalax xanthodon, Nannospalax ehrenbergi, N. cil- icicus, and N. nehringi). Cytotypes in western Anatolia (2n ¼ 36, 2n ¼ 38, 2n ¼ 40, 2n ¼ 52) showed private alleles in different enzyme systems; therefore, these cytotypes were genetically different, both from each other and other cytotypes. Although cytotypes in central Anatolia (2n ¼ 52S, 2n ¼ 56, 2n ¼ 58, and 2n ¼ 60) contained a different diploid chromosome number, they showed identical patterns in terms of their allele content in the 28 enzymatic loci. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The blind mole rat (Nannospalax Palmer, 1903), which is widely distributed across the Eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northeastern Africa, is a subterranean rodent that is highly adapted to living underground. Nannospalax is considered a taxonomically confusing genus because there are many difficulties at the specific and lower ranks of this genus. This controversial situation has shown more complexities in Anatolia, which is assumed to as origin or center of biodiversity of the blind mole rat (Kry stufek and Vohralik, 2009). In recent years, many cytogenetic studies have been carried out on Anatolian mole rats and these studies have disclosed the presence of 10 different cytotypes in Nannospalax xanthodon (2n ¼ 36, 38, 40, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, and 60), and 4 cytotypes in Nannospalax ehrenbergi (2n ¼ 48, 52, 56, and 58) (Nevo et al., 1995; Kankılıç et al., 2007; S€ ozen et al., 2013). However, the taxonomic treatment of cytotypes at specific or intraspecific levels is still controversial; no valid names have so far been assigned to them. * Corresponding author. Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, Ni gde University 51350 Campus, Ni gde, Turkey. Tel.: þ90 388 2254056; fax: þ90 388 2250180. E-mail address: teomankankilic@gmail.com (T. Kankılıç). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biochemical Systematics and Ecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biochemsyseco http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bse.2014.12.021 0305-1978/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 59 (2015) 126e134