Phylogenetic analyses of M. myotis based on HVII sequences
Genetic sequences referring to the sole HVII domain of the mitochondrial CR region belonged to 10 distinct haplotypes, among which six were newly described and one was previously described in Myotis blythii only (Table S5).
Phylogenetic analyses that considered our haplotypes with the ones already described across Europe showed they all clustered within haplogroups A, B or C as described by Ruedi et al. (2008) (Figure 3). Ninety-five percent of individuals showed haplotypes clustering within haplogroup B, including the widespread haplotype H12 and six other haplotypes described for the first time, named H-ST16-1/6. Four out of six of these haplotypes were unique to a single colony, one was exclusively found in an adult male, and one was found in two different colonies and an adult male (Figure 3, Table S5). In addition, six individuals from three colonies (4.1%) shared the pan-European haplotype H1, belonging to the haplogroup A. Finally two individuals from two different colonies carried the genetic signature of haplogroup C, previously found in North-Western Italy and Switzerland, among which one haplotype was newly described and another one was previously described from a M. blythii . Crucially, both these individuals were youngsters, so that they were not included in the determination of the genetic structure.
Haplotypes belonging to more than one haplogroup were found in all colonies, with the exception of the southern colony five, with representatives from groups A, B and C described only in colony three, much closer to the border compared to other colonies (Figure 3, Table S5). Interestingly, adult males included in these analyses only carried signatures belonging to haplogroup B (Figure 3, Table S5).