Data from: Evolutionary and dispersal history of Eurasian wild mice Mus musculus clarified by more extensive geographic sampling of mitochondrial DNA

We examined sequence variation of mitochondrial DNA control region and
cytochrome b gene of the house mouse (Mus musculus sensu lato) drawn from
ca. 200 localities, with 290 new samples drawn primarily from previously
unsampled portions of their Eurasian distribution and with the objective
of further clarifying evolutionary episodes of this species before and
after the onset of human-mediated long-distance dispersals. Phylogenetic
analysis of the expanded data detected five equally distinct clades, with
geographic ranges of northern Eurasia (musculus, MUS), India and Southeast
Asia (castaneus, CAS), Nepal (unspecified), western Europe (domesticus,
DOM), and Yemen (gentilulus). Our results confirm previous suggestions of
Southwestern Asia as the likely place of origin of M. musculus and the
region of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India, specifically as
the ancestral homeland of CAS. The divergence of the subspecies lineages
and of internal sublineage differentiation within CAS were estimated to be
0.37-0.47 and 0.14-0.23 million years ago (mya), respectively, assuming a
split of M. musculus and Mus spretus at 1.7 mya. Of four CAS sublineages
detected, only one extends to eastern parts of India, Southeast Asia,
Indonesia, Philippines, South China, Northeast China, Primorye, Sakhalin
and Japan, implying a dramatic range expansion of CAS out of its homeland
during an evolutionary short time, perhaps associated with the spread of
agricultural practices. Multiple and non-coincident eastward dispersal
events of MUS sublineages to distant geographic areas, such as northern
China, Russia, and Korea, are inferred, with the possibility of several
different routes.