Molecular phylogeny of the Arabian Horned Viper, Cerastes gasperettii (Serpentes: Viperidae) in the Middle East

Abstract

The Arabian Horned Viper, Cerastes gasperettii, is distributed along the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula south and east across the Arabian Peninsula to Iraq, Kuwait and western Iran comprising two subspecies: Cerastes. g. mendelssohni in the Arava valley (Israel and Jordan) and C. g. gasperettii in the Arabian Peninsula and southwestern Iran. Phylogenetic relationships based on Maximum Likelihood, Bayesian Inference, haplotype networks, and genetic divergence among different populations of C. gasperettii are analysed in this study. Two mitochondrial (12S and Cytb) and two nuclear partial genes (C-mos and MC1R) with uneven distribution among the individuals were used to infer phylogenetic relationships. Bayesian inference (BI) phylogenetic tree indicates a dichotomy separating a southern (Oman, UAE, Yemen) from a northern clade (Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Israel). Except for the first dichotomy in the BI tree, other nodes are weakly supported. The concatenated tree inferred from maximum likelihood (ML) approach shows a similar topology in the main clades. There is low variability within C. gasperettii despite its vast distribution range. Mitochondrial haplotype networks support southern and northern clades with seven haplotypes in the 12S and five haplotypes in the Cytb. The C-mos nuclear network does not support these clades with five haplotypes. The polytypic status of Cerastes gasperettii which has previously been described based on morphological observations is not supported in the molecular results and the state of Cerastes. g. mendelssohni is questioned.

Keywords:

• Vipers
• Arabian Peninsula
• Arava Valley

Acknowledgments

A.C. would like to thank the Zoological Garden, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv for the samples of Cerastes borrowed from them. We thank Theodore J. Papenfuss, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, USA for editing this paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.