{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,16]],"date-time":"2026-06-16T08:55:32Z","timestamp":1781600132678,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":84,"publisher":"PeerJ","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,16]],"date-time":"2026-06-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1781568000000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      The genus\n                      <jats:italic>Meriones<\/jats:italic>\n                      Illiger, 1811 is widely distributed in the Middle East, Northern Africa, and Central Asia. In spite of many studies evaluating the gerbil phylogeny, the systematics of this genus is controversial because studies analyzing a single gene region yield inconsistent results. The presented research provides the first complete mitogenomes of four gerbil species (\n                      <jats:italic>Meriones crassus, Meriones persicus, Meriones tristrami,<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Meriones vinogradovi<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) distributed in T\u00fcrkiye and novel and strong results to clarify the phylogenetic relationships of these gerbils.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) was performed using the specimens from T\u00fcrkiye. Other gerbil species (\n                      <jats:italic>M. tamariscinus, M. meridianus (M. dahli), M. unguiculatus, M. libycus, Rhombomys opimus, Psammomys obesus, Brachiones przewalskii,<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Gerbilliscus leucogaster<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) were also included in the phylogenetic analyses. In addition to determining the mitogenome characteristics, mean genetic distance values, haplotype and nucleotide diversity values, numbers of mutations and polymorphic sites were calculated, and a Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood trees were constructed along with the divergence times.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Most of the 37 gene regions were encoded on the H-strand; the GC% ratio varied between 36.9 and 38.1% among the four species that show their genomes were AT-rich. Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood trees gave well-supported genetic relationships:\n                      <jats:italic>P. obesus<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>G. leucogaster<\/jats:italic>\n                      were located as the most distant species, and\n                      <jats:italic>M. tamariscinus<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>R. opimus<\/jats:italic>\n                      were found to be closer.\n                      <jats:italic>M. meridianus, M. unguiculatus,<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>M. persicus<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>M. tristrami<\/jats:italic>\n                      ,\n                      <jats:italic>M. crassus<\/jats:italic>\n                      ,\n                      <jats:italic>M. libycus<\/jats:italic>\n                      , and\n                      <jats:italic>M.\u00a0vinogradovi<\/jats:italic>\n                      formed two differentiated lineages. In the latter lineage,\n                      <jats:italic>M. tristrami<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>M. crassus<\/jats:italic>\n                      were clustered. Also,\n                      <jats:italic>B. przewalskii<\/jats:italic>\n                      was linked to the former two lineages. In addition, mean genetic distance values between\n                      <jats:italic>Meriones<\/jats:italic>\n                      species were determined to be 7.04\u201316.59%, in accordance with the results of the phylogenetic approach. It was also calculated that the species mentioned above diverged 11.04 MYA (95% HPD: 7.94\u201314.68), corresponding to the Late Miocene Epoch.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      In contrast to previous studies, this study supports the paraphyly of subgenus\n                      <jats:italic>Pallasiomys<\/jats:italic>\n                      regarding the\n                      <jats:italic>M. persicus<\/jats:italic>\n                      \u2019 position with high reliability results. Besides, the paraphyletic status of the genus\n                      <jats:italic>Meriones<\/jats:italic>\n                      was proved with the phylogenetic relationship of\n                      <jats:italic>B. przewalskii<\/jats:italic>\n                      and\n                      <jats:italic>Meriones<\/jats:italic>\n                      species. It was also emphasized that mitogenome analyses are notably effective in order to study problematic systematics of rodent groups like\n                      <jats:italic>Meriones<\/jats:italic>\n                      .\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.7717\/peerj.21330","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,16]],"date-time":"2026-06-16T08:27:10Z","timestamp":1781598430000},"page":"e21330","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Complete mitochondrial genome analyzes of four gerbil species (Rodentia: Gerbillinae) distributed in T\u00fcrkiye"],"prefix":"10.7717","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Derya","family":"\u00c7etint\u00fcrk","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"4443","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,16]]},"reference":[{"issue":"1646","key":"10.7717\/peerj.21330\/ref-1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"20130438","DOI":"10.1098\/rstb.2013.0438","article-title":"What cost mitochondria? 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