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Molecular phylogenetics of sub-Saharan African natricine snakes, and the biogeographic origins of the Seychelles endemic Lycognathophis seychellensis
Deepak, V Maddock, Simon T Williams, Rhiannon Nagy, Zoltán T Conradie, Werner Rocha, Sara James Harris, D Perera, Ana GvoždÃk, Václav Doherty-Bone, Thomas M
Deepak, V
Maddock, Simon T
Williams, Rhiannon
Nagy, Zoltán T
Conradie, Werner
Rocha, Sara
James Harris, D
Perera, Ana
GvoždÃk, Václav
Doherty-Bone, Thomas M
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2021-03-17
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Abstract
Phylogenetic relationships of sub-Saharan African natricine snakes are understudied and poorly understood, which in turn has precluded analyses of the historical biogeography of the Seychelles endemic Lycognathophis seychellensis. We inferred the phylogenetic relationships of Seychelles and mainland sub-Saharan natricines by analysing a multilocus DNA sequence dataset for three mitochondrial (mt) and four nuclear (nu) genes. The mainland sub-Saharan natricines and L. seychellensis comprise a well-supported clade. Two maximally supported sets of relationships within this clade are (Limnophis,Natriciteres) and (Afronatrix,(Hydraethiops,Helophis)). The relationships of L. seychellensis with respect to these two lineages are not clearly resolved by analysing concatenated mt and nu data. Analysed separately, nu data best support a sister relationship of L. seychellensis with (Afronatrix,(Hydraethiops,Helophis)) and mt data best support a sister relationship with all mainland sub-Saharan natricines. Methods designed to cope with incomplete lineage sorting strongly favour the former hypothesis. Genetic variation among up to 33 L. seychellensis from five Seychelles islands is low. Fossil calibrated divergence time estimates support an overseas dispersal of the L. seychellensis lineage to the Seychelles from mainland Africa ca. 43–25 Ma, rather than this taxon being a Gondwanan relic.
Citation
Deepak, V., Maddock, S.T., Williams, R. et al. (2021) Molecular phylogenetics of sub-Saharan African natricine snakes, and the biogeographic origins of the Seychelles endemic Lycognathophis seychellensis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 161, Article Number 107152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107152
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en
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This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Elsevier in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, available online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2021.107152
The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.
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1055-7903
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VD was funded by EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship 751567. STM was funded by an NHM-UCL IMPACT PhD studentship. STM and JL each received awards from the Systematics Research Fund of the Systematics Association and Linnean Society of London, and the Mohammed bin Zayed Conservation Fund (Projects 172515128 and 162513749). Seychelles research was also funded by the BBSRC’s SynTax scheme (awarded to M. Wilkinson, JJD and DJG). VG was supported by the IVB CAS institutional support (RVO: 68081766), and the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (DKRVO 2019–2023/6.VII.c, National Museum, 00023272). TDB’s fieldwork was funded by the Royal Geographical Society, and Golder Associates. RGK received EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship (PIIF-GA-2013-625870). This work was also supported by Darwin Initiative grant 19-002 (to J.J. Groombridge and colleagues).