Divergence of the Cytochrome b Gene in the Lacerta raddei Complex and Its Parthenogenetic Daughter Species: Evidence for Recent Multiple Origins
Questions concerning the origin of parthenogenesis in Caucasian Rock Lizards and genetic divergence among bisexual lizards of the Lacerta raddei complex were examined using sequences from the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. The maternal parent of the parthenogenetic L. uzzelli, L. sapphirina, and L. bendimahiensis was confirmed to be L. raddei. Although substantial variation was revealed among bisexual populations of L. raddei and L. nairensis, very low or no variation was found among the parthenogenetic species. A phylogenetic tree including 11 populations of L. raddei and L. nairensis, as well as 10 populations of its five daughter parthenogens, was constructed. Because of paraphyletic relationships, L. nairensis is considered conspecific with L. raddei. Evaluation of the parthenogenetic species suggests that separate hybridization events between L. raddei and L. valentini might have occurred at least twice. One resulted in L. sapphirina and L. bendimahiensis, and the other one (or more) resulted in L. unisexualis and L. uzzelli. The females involved were distantly related, Lacerta unisexualis and L. uzzelli likely had separate origins, but the females involved were closely related.Abstract

Hypothetical parentage of parthenogenetic Caucasian rock lizards. Species in bold are parthenogens, and others are the bisexual parental species. “?” indicates uncertainty

Map of Transcaucasus with the distribution of localities from which sexual and parthenogenetic species were collected. The numbers at each locality correspond to those in the Appendix

The phylogenetic relationships of the populations of Lacerta raddei complex and its parthenogenetic daughter species. The solid lines represent the strict consensus tree of the two equally most parsimonious trees from the unweighted analysis, and the dashed lines represent the single most parsimonious tree from the weighted analysis. Species in bold are parthenogens. Numbers above the lines are bootstrap proportions greater than 0.50 on the consensus tree, which are derived from 1000 replicates