Taxonomic investigation of the genus Ablepharus (Sauria; Scincidae) with molecular and morphological methods in Anatolian populations

Ablepharus Lichtenstein, 1823, which includes ten species, is distributed in eastern Europe and Asia. Four species arerecorded in Turkey: A. kitaibelii, A. chernovi, A. bivittatus, and A. budaki. After molecular and morphological studies in Anatolia, thephylogenetic relationship of the genus is still very complicated. Here, we investigate the taxonomic status of Ablepharus in Anatolia usingmorphological and molecular methods. The genetic structure of Ablepharus populations in Anatolia was analyzed using both the nuclear(CMOS) and mitochondrial (cyt b and COI) gene regions. The maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference methods were applied forphylogenetic tree reconstruction, together with calculation of p-distances and reconstruction of haplotype networks. The morphologicalanalysis was evaluated with SPSS by using 12 metric and 17 meristic characteristics. In total, 41 specimens and 279 specimens were usedfor the molecular and morphological analysis, respectively. A. bivittatus has highly different genetic and morphological characteristicscompared to the others, and it shares similar morphological characteristics with the genus Asymblepharus, which are elliptical tympanum,hidden upper eye opening under 3 or 4 large shields, light and dark longitudinal stripes on the back, adpressed hind-limbs reaching toknees, and well-developed limbs with five toes. For this reason, A. bivittatus was placed in the genus Asymblepharus as Asymblepharusbivittatus comb. nov. A. budaki anatolicus was elevated to species level as A. anatolicus based on morphological and genetic data. In thisstudy, Anatolian A. kitaibelii comprised two sister subclades, A. kitaibelii kitaibelii and A. kitaibelii stepaneki, and this research is the firstrecord of A. kitaibelii stepaneki in Turkey. A. chernovi was divided into three subclades: A. chernovi chernovi, A. chernovi eiselti, and A.chernovi isaurensis.

PDF

___

Bandelt HJ, Forster P, Röhl A (1999). Median-joining networks for inferring intraspecific phylogenies. Molecular Biology and Evolution 16: 37-48.
Baran İ, Ilgaz Ç, Avcı A, Kumlutaş Y, Olgun K (2012). Türkiye Amfibi ve Sürüngenleri, Ankara, Turkey: TÜBİTAK Popüler Bilim Kitapları (in Turkish).
Bauer AM (1998). Lizards. In: Halliday T, Adler K (editors). Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. 1st ed. San Diego, CA, USA: Academic Press, pp. 126-173.
Durmuş SH, Kumlutaş Y, Özdemir A, Avcı A, Ilgaz Ç (2011). Morphology, taxonomic status and distribution of Trachylepis aurata (Linnaeus, 1758) in southeast Anatolia (Squamata: Sauria: Scincidae). Herpetozoa 24: 61-71.
Eremchenko VL, Sczerbak NN (1980). Ablepharus lindbergi sp. n. (Reptilia, Sauria, Scincidae) from Afghanistan-A new species of snake-eyed lizard. Vestnik Zoologii 6: 84-86.
Eremchenko VL, Sczerbak NN (1986). Ablefaridnyye Yashcheritsy Fauny SSSR i Sopredel’nykh Stran. 1st ed. Frunze, Russia: Ylym Publications (in Russian).
Fuhn IE (1970). Über die unterarten von Ablepharus kitaibelii (Bibron & Bory de St. Vincent, 1833) (Sauria, Scincidae). Acta Societatis Zoolooicae Bohemoslovacea 1: 9-17 (in German).
Göçmen B, Kumlutaş Y, Tosunoğlu M (1996). A new subspecies, Ablepharus kitaibelii (Bibron & Borry, 1833) budaki n. ssp. (Sauria: Scincidae) from Turkish Republich of Northern Cyprus. Doğa Turkish Journal of Zoology 20: 397-405.
Hall TA (1999). BioEdit: A user-friendly biological sequence alignment editor and analysis program for Windows 95/98/ NT. Nucleic Acids Symposium Series 41: 95-98.
Hedges SB (2014). The high-level classification of skinks (Reptilia, Squamata, Scincomorpha). Zootaxa 3765: 317-338. Hillis DM, Moritz C (editors) (1990). Molecular Systematics. 1st ed. Sunderland, MA, USA: Sinauer.
Huang WS, Lin SM, Dubey S, Pike DA (2013). Predation drives interpopulation differences in parental care expression. Journal of Animal Ecology 82: 429-437.
Huelsenbeck JP, Ronquist F, Nielsen R, Bollback JP (2001). Bayesian inference of phylogeny and its impact on evolutionary biology. Science 294: 2310-2314.
Ilgaz Ç, Kumlutaş Y, Olgun K, Baran İ (2007). The morphology and distribution of Ablepharus bivittatus (Menetries, 1832) (Reptilia: Sauria: Scincidae) in Turkey. Russian Journal of Herpetology 14: 91-97.
Karin BR, Metallinou M, Weinell JL, Jackman TR, Bauer AM (2016). Resolving the higher-order phylogenetic relationship of the circumtropical Mabuya group (Squamata: Scincidae): an outof- Asia diversification. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 102: 220-232.
Kornilios P, Kumlutaş Y, Lymberakis P, Ilgaz Ç (2018). Cryptic diversity and systematics of the Aegean Ophiomorus skinks (Reptilia: Squamata), with the description of a new species. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 56: 364-381.
Kumar S, Stecher G, Li M, Knyaz C, Tamura K (2018). MEGA X: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis across computing platforms. Molecular Biology and Evolution 35: 1547 - 1549.
Kumlutaş Y, Arıkan H, Ilgaz Ç, Kaska Y (2007). A new subspecies, Eumeces schneideri barani n. ssp (Reptilia: Sauria: Scincidae) from Turkey. Zootaxa 1387: 27-38.
Kumlutaş Y, Öz M, Özdemir A, Tunç MR, Durmuş H et al. (2005). On the populations of Abelpharus kitaibelii (Bibron and Bory, 1833) (Sauria: Scincidae) from South-Western Anatolia. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 8: 461-465.
Nagy ZT, Sonet G, Glaw F, Vences M (2012). First large-scale DNA barcoding assessment of reptiles in the biodiversity hotspot of Madagascar, based on newly desinged COI primers. PLoS One 7: 1-11.
Posada D, Crandall KA (1998). Modeltest: Testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinformatics 14: 817-818.
Poulakakis N, Lymberakis P, Tsigenopoulos CS, Magoulas A, Mylonas M (2005). Phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of snake-eyed skink Ablepharus kitaibelii (Sauria: Scincidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 34: 245-256.
Poulakakis N, Pakaki V, Mylonas M, Lymberakis P (2008). Molecular phylogeny of the Greek legless skink Ophiomorus punctatissimus (Squamata: Scincidae): the impact of the Mid- Aegean trench in its phylogeography. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 47: 396-402.
Pyron RA, Burbrink FT, Wiens JJ (2013). A phylogeny and revised classification of Squamata, including 4161 species of lizards and snakes. BMC Evolutionary Biology 13: 93-146.
Schlüter U (2005). Die herpetofauna der bulgarischen schwarzmeerküste – Teil 2: Echsen. Elaphe 13: 52-58 (in German).
Schmidtler JF (1997). Die Ablepharus kitaibelii – Gruppe in Süd- Anatolien und benachbarten Gebieten (Squamata, Sauria, Scincidae). Herpetozoa 10: 35-63 (in German).
Sindaco R, Kornilios P, Sacchi R, Lymberakis P (2014). Taxonomic reassessment of Blanus strauchi (Bedriaga, 1884) (Squamata: Amphisbaenia: Blanidae), with the description of a new species from south-east Anatolia (Turkey). Zootaxa 3795: 311-326.
Skourtanioti E, Kapli P, Ilgaz Ç, Kumlutaş Y, Avcı A et al. (2016). A reinvestigation of phylogeny and divergence times of the Ablepharus kitaibelii complex (Sauria, Scincidae) based on mtDNA and nuDNA genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 103: 199-214.
Swofford DL (editor) (2002). PAUP: Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (And Other Methods), Version 4. 1st ed. Sunderland, MA, USA: Sinauer.
Whiting AS, Bauer AM, Sites JW Jr (2003). Phylogenetic relationship and limb loss in sub-Saharan Africa scincine lizards (Squamata: Scincidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 29: 582- 598.