Extreme genetic diversity in the lizard <it>Atlantolacerta andreanskyi</it> (Werner, 1929): A montane cryptic species complex

• Main Authors: Barata Mafalda, Carranza Salvador, Harris D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2012-09-01
• Series: BMC Evolutionary Biology
• Subjects: <it>Atlantolacerta andreanskyi</it>; Lacertidae; Mountain specialist; High Atlas Mountains; Phylogeography; Morocco
• Online Access: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/12/167

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Atlantolacerta andreanskyi</it> is an enigmatic lacertid lizard that, according to the most recent molecular analyses, belongs to the tribe Eremiadini, family Lacertidae. It is a mountain specialist, restricted to areas above 2400 m of the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco with apparently no connection between the different populations. In order to investigate its phylogeography, 92 specimens of <it>A. andreanskyi</it> were analyzed from eight different populations across the distribution range of the species for up to 1108 base pairs of mitochondrial DNA (<it>12S</it>, <it>ND4</it> and flanking <it>tRNA-His</it>) and 2585 base pairs of nuclear DNA including five loci (<it>PDC</it>, <it>ACM4</it>, <it>C-MOS</it>, <it>RAG1</it>, <it>MC1R</it>).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results obtained with both concatenated and coalescent approaches and clustering methods, clearly show that all the populations analyzed present a very high level of genetic differentiation for the mitochondrial markers used and are also generally differentiated at the nuclear level.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results indicate that <it>A. andreanskyi</it> is an additional example of a montane species complex.</p>