Document Type
Article
Date of Original Version
2012
Department
Biological Sciences
Abstract
Anolis carolinensis is an emerging model species and the sole member of its genus native to the United States. Considerable morphological and physiological variation has been described in the species, and the recent sequencing of its genome makes it an attractive system for studies of genome variation. To inform future studies of molecular and phenotypic variation within A. carolinensis, a rigorous account of intraspecific population structure and relatedness is needed. Here, we present the most extensive phylogeographic study of this species to date. Phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequence data support the previous hypothesis of a western Cuban origin of the species. We found five well‐supported, geographically distinct mitochondrial haplotype clades throughout the southeastern United States. Most Florida populations fall into one of three divergent clades, whereas the vast majority of populations outside Florida belong to a single, shallowly diverged clade. Genetic boundaries do not correspond to major rivers, but may reflect effects of Pleistocene glaciation events and the Appalachian Mountains on migration and expansion of the species. Phylogeographic signal should be examined using nuclear loci to complement these findings.
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Campbell-Staton, S. C., Goodman, R. M., Backström, N., Edwards, S. V., Losos, J. B., & Kolbe, J. J. (2012). Out of Florida: mtDNA reveals patterns of migration and Pleistocene range expansion of the Green Anole lizard (Anolis carolinensis). Ecology and Evolution, 2(9), 2274-2284. doi: 10.1002/ece3.324
Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.324
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License