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Abstract
The taxonomic situation of Anguis fragilis species is still unclear in Turkey. In order to clarify this situation, we used the DNA sequences of 16S rRNA and cytochrome b genes to analyze the phylogenetic relationship among A. fragilis populations. A total of 13 haplotypes in 16S rRNA dataset and 20 haplotypes in cytochrome b dataset were detected. Kimura 2-parameter genetic distance was found to be 0.012 for 16S rRNA and 0.026 for the cytochrome b dataset. Neighbor joining (NJ) trees were constructed to analyze phylogenetic relationship among specimens and were supported with median joining networks. Results indicate a clear genetic structuring in A. fragilis populations sampled from north of 40° north latitude of Turkey. Both mitochondrial gene sequences successfully detected the intraspecific variation among specimens of different populations. Genetic structuring, correlated with geographic distance, was found to be significant at the specimens sampled from edge populations of peripherally isolated climatic conditions.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Dr Hilal Ozdag for helpful advice and comments. We also thank Y. E. Dinçaslan, H. Koç, and E. A. Yağmur for their help to obtain some specimens. The author(s) wish to acknowledge use of the Maptool program for analysis and graphics in this paper. Maptool is a product of SEATURTLE.ORG (Information is available at www.seaturtle.org). The present work was supported by Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University.
Declaration of interest: This study constitutes part of a project [Project No: 108T559] supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK). We are indebted to TÜBİTAK for the financial support it has provided. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.