Phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity of the Polypedates leucomystax complex in Thailand
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Biodiversity, Biogeography, Evolutionary Studies
- Keywords
- Allopatric, Amphibian, Demographic expansion, Evolution
- Copyright
- © 2017 Buddhachat et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2017. Phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity of the Polypedates leucomystax complex in Thailand. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3173v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.3173v1
Abstract
Controversy in the taxonomic evaluation of the Asian tree frog Polypedates leucomystax complex presents the challenging task of gaining insight into its biogeographical distribution and diversification. Here, we describe the dispersion and genetic relationship of these species in Thailand where we connect the population of the P. leucomystax complex of the Sunda Islands to the mainland population based on the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene, derived from 266 samples. Our maternal genealogy implies that there are four well-supported lineages in Thailand, consisting of Northern A (clade A: Polypedates sp.), Nan (clade B: P. cf. impresus), Southern (clade C: P. cf. leucomystax) and Northern B (clade D: P. cf. megacephalus), with Bayesian posterior probability >0.9. Phylogeny and haplotype networks indicate that clades A, B and D are sympatric. In contrast, clade C (P. cf. leucomystax) and clade D (P. cf. megacephalus) are genetically divergent due to the geographical barrier of the Isthmus of Kra, resulting in allopatric distribution. Climatic conditions, in particular rainfall, that differ on each side of the Isthmus of Kra may play an important role in limiting the immigration of both clades. For the within-populations of either clades C or D, there was no significant correlation between geographic and genetic distance by the isolation-by-distance test, indicating intraspecific gene flow of each clade. Population expansion occurred in clade C, whereas clade D showed a constant population. Taken together, the P. leucomystax complex in Southeast Asia may be diversified by climatic oscillation, leading to allopatric and/or sympatric speciation.
Author Comment
This is a submission to PeerJ for review.