The geography and timing of genetic divergence in the lizard Phrynocephalus theobaldi on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.

ABSTRACT: The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) represents one of the earth's most significant physical features and there is increasing interest in the historical generation of biodiversity within this region. We hypothesized that there should be clear geographically coherent genetic structuring within one of the world's highest altitude lizards, Phrynocephalus theobaldi, due to considerable historical population fragmentation in this environment. This was tested using a major mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) survey and sequencing of two nuclear markers (AME and RAG-1) from P. theobaldi, from across the southern QTP. A Bayesian method (BPEC) was used to detect four geographically structured mtDNA clusters. A Bayesian phylogenetic tree, together with associated dating analyses, supported four corresponding evo

SUBMITTER: Jin Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5442162 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature