Extremely low genetic diversity indicating the endangered status of Ranodon sibiricus (Amphibia: Caudata) and implications for phylogeography.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Siberian salamander (Ranodon sibiricus), distributed in geographically isolated areas of Central Asia, is an ideal alpine species for studies of conservation and phylogeography. However, there are few data regarding the genetic diversity in R. sibiricus populations.

Methodology/principal findings

We used two genetic markers (mtDNA and microsatellites) to survey all six populations of R. sibiricus in China. Both of the markers revealed extreme genetic uniformity among these populations. There were only three haplotypes in the mtDNA, and the overall nucleotide diversity in the mtDNA was 0.00064, ranging from 0.00000 to 0.00091 for the six populations. Although we recovered 70 sequences containing microsatellite repeats, there were only two loci that displayed po

SUBMITTER: Chen SY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3299782 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature