Phylogeography of Nanorana parkeri (Anura: Ranidae) and multiple refugia on the Tibetan Plateau revealed by mitochondrial and nuclear DNA

Quaternary climatic changes have been recognized to influence the distribution patterns and evolutionary histories of extant organisms, but their effects on alpine species are not well understood. To investigate the Pleistocene climatic oscillations on the genetic structure of amphibians, we sequenc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2015-05, Vol.5 (1), p.9857-9857, Article 9857
Main Authors: Liu, Jun, Wang, Cuimin, Fu, Dongli, Hu, Xiaoju, Xie, Xiangmo, Liu, Pengfei, Zhang, Qiong, Li, Meng-Hua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
38/23
38/77
631/158/852
631/158/857
Amphibians
Animals
Climate change
Cytochrome
Cytochrome b
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Distribution patterns
DNA
DNA, Mitochondrial
Genetic structure
Genetics, Population
Geography
Haplotypes
Humanities and Social Sciences
Laboratories
Life sciences
Mitochondrial DNA
Models, Theoretical
multidisciplinary
Nucleotide sequence
Oscillations
Phylogeny
Phylogeography
Pleistocene
Population
Quaternary
Ranidae - classification
Ranidae - genetics
Refugia
Refugium
Science
Species
Tibet
Topography
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Summary:Quaternary climatic changes have been recognized to influence the distribution patterns and evolutionary histories of extant organisms, but their effects on alpine species are not well understood. To investigate the Pleistocene climatic oscillations on the genetic structure of amphibians, we sequenced one mitochondrial and three nuclear DNA fragments in Nanorana parkeri , a frog endemic to the Tibetan Plateau, across its distribution range in the southern plateau. Mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cyt b ) and three nuclear genes ( c-Myc2 , Rhod and Tyr ) revealed two distinct lineages (i.e. the lineages East and West), which were strongly geographically structured. The split of the two divergent lineages was dated back earlier than the Middle Pleistocene, probably being associated with climatic and ecological factors. Species distribution modeling, together with the phylogeographic structuring, supported the hypothesis of multiple refugia for N. parkeri on the Tibetan Plateau during the Pleistocene glaciations and suggested the Yarlung Zangbo valley and the Kyichu catchment to be the potential refugia. Our findings indicate that Pleistocene climatic changes have had a great impact on the evolution and demographic history of N. parkeri . Our study has important implications for conservation of this and other frog species in the Tibetan Plateau.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep09857