Vol. 75 (4) 2023

ARTICLES

Phylogenetic Affinity and Genetic Structure of the Southern Crested Newt Triturus karelinii Strauch, 1870 (Amphibia: Caudata) in Iran Inferred from mtDNA Sequences

Maryam Pourhallaji1, Mohammad Dehdar Dargahi1, Haji Gholi Kami2, Eskandar Rastegar Pouyani3* & Mahsa Hakimi Abed1

More info

1Department of Environment, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan, Iran
2Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran
*3Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Hakim sabzevari University,Sabzevar, Iran

https://doi.org/10.71424/azb75.4.002684

PDF

Abstract
The southern crested newt Triturus karelinii Strauch, 1870, is widely distributed on the northern Iran plateau, where it is one of the most common newts. Mitochondrial DNA sequences (the genes cyt b and ND4) were used to determine the genetic diversity and phylogenetic position of Iranian Triturus. The results corroborate the monophyly of T. karelinii and confirm that all Iranian and Azerbaijan populations belong to the same species. Genetic distances (K2-p) between Iranian T. karelinii and other Triturus species was relatively high, (7–25% for ND4 and 8–19% for cytb). However, infraspecific genetic diversity among the Iranian populations was very low, which may indicate strong gene flow between populations.

Key words
Phylogeny; Triturus karelinii; cyt b; ND4; gene flow; Iran

How to Cite
Pourhallaji М., Dargahi M.D., Kami H.G., Pouyani E.R. & Abed1 M.H. 2023. Phylogenetic Affinity and Genetic Structure of the Southern Crested Newt Triturus karelinii Strauch, 1870 (Amphibia: Caudata) in Iran Inferred from mtDNA Sequences. Acta zoologica bulgarica 75 (4) 463-468.

References

  1. Akaike H. 1974. A new look at the statistical model identification. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control 19: 716–723.
  2. Arevalo E., Davis S. K. & Sites Jr J. W. 1994. Mitochondrial DNA sequence divergence and phylogenetic relationships among eight chromosome races of the Sceloporus grammicus complex (Phrynosomatidae) in central Mexico. Systematic Biology 43(3): 387–418.
  3. Arntzen J. W, Themudo G. E. & Wielstra B. 2007. The phylogeny of crested newts (Triturus cristatus superspecies): nuclear and mitochondrial genetic characters suggest a hard polytomy, in line with the paleogeography of the centre of origin. Contributions to Zoology 76(4): 261–278.
  4. Arntzen J. W. & Wielstra B. 2010. Where to draw the line? A nuclear genetic perspective on proposed range boundaries of the crested newts Triturus karelinii and T. arntzeni. Amphibia – Reptilia 31 (3): 311–322 https://doi.org/10.1163/156853810791769509
  5. Crnobrnja-Isailovic J., Krstic N., Kalezic M. L. & Dzukic G. 1997. Evolutionary and palaeogeographical effects on the distribution of the Triturus cristatus superspecies in the central Balkans. Amphibia – Reptilia 18 (4): 321–332.
  6. Hall T. 1999. BioEdit: a user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/NT. In: Nucleic Acids Symposium 41: 95–98.
  7. Ivanović A., Üzüm N., Wielstra B., Olgun K., Litvinchuk S. N, Kalezić M. L. & Arntzen J. W. 2013. Is mitochondrial DNA divergence of Near Eastern crested newts (Triturus karelinii group) reflected by differentiation of skull shape? Zoologischer Anzeiger, a Journal of Comparative Zoology 252 (2): 269–277.
  8. Kapli P., Botoni D., Ilgaz Ç., Kumlutaş Y., Avcı A., Rastegar-Pouyani N., … Poulakakis N 2013. Molecular phylogeny and historical biogeography of the Anatolian lizard Apathya (Squamata, Lacertidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 66 (3): 992–1001.
  9. Kumar S., Stecher G. & Tamura K. 2016. MEGA7: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 7.0 for bigger datasets. Molecular Biology and Evolution 33 (7): 1870–1874.
  10. Litvinchuk S. N. & Borkin L. J. 2009. Evolution, Systematics, and Distribution of Crested Newts (Triturus cristatus Complex) in Russia and Adjacent Countries. Evropeisky Dom Press, St. Petersburg.
  11. Maletzky A., Mikulíček P., Franzen M., Goldschmid A., Gruber H. J., Horák A. & Kyek M. 2008. Hybridization and introgression between two species of crested newts (Triturus cristatus and T. carnifex) along contact zones in Germany and Austria: morphological and molecular data. The Herpetological Journal 18 (1): 1–15.
  12. Posada D. 2008. jModelTest: phylogenetic model averaging. Molecular Biology and Evolution 25 (7): 1253–1256.
  13. Pourhallaji M., Dehdar Dargahi M., Kami H. G., Rastegar Pouyani E. & Hakimiabed M. 2021. Species distribution modeling and environmental suitability of the Southern crested newt, Triturus karelinii (Strauch, 1870) (Amphibia: Caudata) in Iran. Journal of Wildlife and Biodiversity 5 (4): 44–52. DOI: 10.22120/jwb.2021.530445.1228.
  14. Rancilhac L., Irisarri I., Angelini C., Arntzen J. W., Babik W., Bossuyt F., Künzel S., Lüddecke T., Pasmans F. & Sanchez E. 2021. Phylotranscriptomic evidence for pervasive ancient hybridization among Old World salamanders. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 155: 106967. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106967
  15. Ronquist F., Teslenko M., Van Der Mark P., Ayres D. L., Darling A., Höhna S., … Huelsenbeck J. P. 2012. MrBayes 3.2: efficient Bayesian phylogenetic inference and model choice across a large model space. Systematic Biology 61 (3): 539–542.
  16. Safaei-Mahroo B., Ghaffari H., Fahimi H., Broomand S., Yazdanian M., Najafimajd E., Hossinian Yousefkhani S., Rezazadeh E., Hosseinzadeh M., Nasrabadi R., Rajabizadeh M., Mashayekhi M., Motesharei A., Naderi A. & Kazemi M. 2015. The Herpetofauna of Iran: Checklist of Taxonomy, Distribution and Conservation Status. Asian Herpetological Research 6 (4): 264–265.
  17. Wielstra B. & Arntzen J. W. 2016. Description of a new species of crested newt, previously subsumed in Triturus ivanbureschi (Amphibia: Caudata: Salamandridae). Zootaxa 4109 (1): 73–80.
  18. Wielstra B. & Arntzen J. W. 2020. Genetic homogeneity in a Pontocaspian crested newt species (Triturus karelinii) suggests recent isolation of its three allopatric range sections. Amphibia – Reptilia 42 (2): 179–187.
  19. Wielstra B., Litvinchuk S. N., Naumov B., Tzankov N. & Arntzen J. W. 2013. A revised taxonomy of crested newts in the Triturus karelinii group (Amphibia: Caudata: Salamandridae), with the description of a new species. Zootaxa 3682 (3): 441–453.
  20. Wielstra B., McCartney-Melstad E., Arntzen J. W., Butlin R. K. & Shaffer H. B. 2019. Phylogenomics of the adaptive radiation of Triturus newts supports gradual ecological niche expansion towards an incrementally aquatic lifestyle. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 133: 120–127.
  21. Wielstra B., Beukema W., Arntzen J. W., Skidmore A. K., Toxopeus A. G. & Raes N. 2012. Corresponding mitochondrial DNA and niche divergence for crested newt candidate species. PLoS ONE 7 (9): e46671.
  22. Wielstra B., Espregueira Themudo G., Güçlü Ö., Olgun K., Poyarkov Jr. N. A. & Arntzen J. W. 2010. Cryptic crested newt diversity at the Eurasian transition: The mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of Near Eastern Triturus newts. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 56: 888–896.