Molecular phylogeny of Lytorhynchus diadema (Reptilia, Colubridae) populations in Saudi Arabia

2021/12/21 by Ahmed Alshammari, Ahmed Badry, Salem Busais +2

paper · doi:10.3897/herpetozoa.34.e74009

Abstract

This study presents the molecular phylogenetic relationships among Lytorhynchus diadema (Duméril, Bibron & Duméril, 1854) populations in Saudi Arabia relative to populations from Africa and Asia. This phylogenetic analysis was based on mitochondrial 16S and 12S rRNA partial gene fragments using Neighbor-joining, Maximum Parsimony, and Bayesian methods. The results strongly support the monophyly of Lytorhynchus based on two concatenated genes and the 12S rRNA gene separately. Also, a significant separation is observed between the Arabian samples from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman, and the African populations from Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco.

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