An Attempt to Reconstruct the Phylogeny of the Hipposideros Leaf-nosed Bats Based on Nuclear Gene Markers.

The genus Hipposideros is one of the largest bat genera. The latest research on its Asian representatives has been done only with mitochondrial or sole nuclear markers. In the present study we compare the results of phylogenetic reconstructions, based on mitochondrial, on single nuclear genes and on multiple nuclear markers analyzed using the MRP algorithm (Matrix representation with parsimony) for representative species from all the main species groups. MRP analysis provides the most supported and well-interpretable phylogeny. Our data indicate monophyly of the large Asian leaf-nosed bats which suggests they are an independent taxon of the subgenus rank, as well as monophyly of several species complexes which are paraphyletic according to mtDNA analysis.