Abstract
The polymerase chain reaction with arbitrary primers (RAPD-PCR) was used to study intraspecific variation in Mediterranean turtle Testudo graeca, which is represented by the Dagestan (T. g. pallasi) and Nikolskii (T. g. nikolskii) subspecies in Russia. To study the phylogenetic relationships, the RAPD variation was also compared in two other T. graeca subspecies (T. g. ibera and T. g. terrestris), two closely related Testudo species (T. kleinmanni and T. marginata), and Central Asian turtle Agrionemys horsfieldii. Parameters of RAPD variation showed that the sample from different geographical regions of Dagestan was more polymorphic and heterogeneous than that from Central Asia. The two samples differed in the mean number of RAPD fragments N (48.76 vs. 40.40), number of polymorphic fragments P (78.7 vs. 32.3), and within-group similarity index APS (0.607 vs. 0.784). In T. g. pallasi, no significant difference in N, P, or APS was observed between samples from different localities of Dagestan or between groups of turtles with four- or five-clawed forelegs. A dendrogram of genetic similarity between the species and subspecies under study contained two clusters, one comprising all A. horsfieldii individuals and the other, all turtles of the genus Testudo. In the latter, T. marginata and T. kleinmanni showed higher similarity to each other than to T. graeca. The four T. graeca subspecies clustered separately from each other with a high reliability, T. g. nikolskii and T. g ibera (Turkey) being more similar to each other than to T. g. terrestris or T. g. pallasi. The possible causes of the presence of four claws on forelegs of turtles from Dagestan and the relationships among members of the genus Testudo were discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
N.B. Anan’eva L.Ya. Borkin I.S. Darevskii N.L. Orlov (1998) Amphibians and Reptiles Entsiklopediya prirody Rossii AVF Moscow 195–203
Kostina, G.N. and Galichenko, M.V., Several Morphological Features of Mediterranean Turtle from Southern Dagestan, in Vliyanie antropogennykh faktorov na strukturu i funktsionirovanie biotsenozov i ikh otdel’nykh komponentov (Effects of Anthropogenic Factors on the Structure and Functioning of Biocenoses and Their Individual Components), Moscow, 1998, pp. 80–84.
O.A. Leontyeva R.R. Gallamov I.V. Slavinskaya (1998) Comparative Ecological and Morphological Characteristics of Testudo graeca nikolskii and T. g. ibera in the Caucasus C. Miaud R. Guyetant (Eds) Current Studies in Herpetology SEH Le Bourget du Lac, France 263–268
L.F. Mazanaeva (2001) ArticleTitleDistribution, State of Populations and Problems of Protection of Testudo graeca ibera in Dagestan (The South Eastern North Caucasus, Russia) Proc. Int. Congr. on Testudo Genus 3 59–66
A.A. Inozemtsev S.L. Pereschkolnik (1985) The Present State and Protection Prospects of Turtle Testudo graesa L. from the Black Sea Coast of the Caucasus Vliyanie antropogennykh faktorov na strukturu i funktsionirovanie biogeotsenozov Kalin. Pedag. Inst. Kalinin 60–79
Inozemtsev, A.A. and Pereschkolnik, S.L., To Preserve a Relic of Ancient Pontidy, Priroda, 1987, no. 8, pp. 38–49.
Y. Alvarez J. Mateo A. Andreu et al. (2000) ArticleTitleMitochondrial DNA Haplotyping of Testudo graeca on Both Continental Sides of the Straits of Gibraltar J. Hered. 91 IssueID1 39–41
A. Kuyl ParticleVan der D. Ballasina J. Dekker et al. (2002) ArticleTitlePhylogenetic Relationships among the Species of Genus Testudo (Testudines: Testudinidae) Inferred from Mitochondrial 12S rRNA Gene Sequences Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 22 IssueID2 174–183
J.G.K. Williams A.R. Kubelic K.J. Livak et al. (1990) ArticleTitleDNA Polymorphisms Amplified by Arbitrary Primers Are Useful as Genetic Markers Nucleic Acids Res. 18 IssueID22 6531–6535
C.H. Ernst R.W. Barbour (1989) Turtles of the World Smithsonian Inst. Press Washington, DC 227–228
S.H. Rogstad S. Pelikan (1996) ArticleTitleGELSTATS: A Computer Program for Population Genetics Analyses Using VNTR Multilocus Probe Data BioTechniques 21 1128–1131
P. Good (1993) Permutation Tests Springer-Verlag New York
Y. Peer ParticleVan der R. Wachter ParticleDe (1994) ArticleTitleTREECON for Windows: A Software Package for the Construction and Drawing of Evolutionary Trees for the Microsoft Windows Environment Comput. Appl. Biosci. 10 569–570
G.A. Lada (1999) ArticleTitlePolydactily in Anurans in the Tambov Region (Russia) Russ. J. Herpetol. 6 104–106
A. Dubois (1974) ArticleTitlePolydactylie massive, associée à la clinodactylie, dans une population de Rana graeca: Remarques sur polydactylie faible et la clinodactylie chez Bufo bufo (Amphibiens, Anoures) Bull. Soc. Zool. Fr. 99 501–521
Puzanov, N.I., Specifics and Origin of the Crimean Fauna, Uchenye zapiski Gor’kovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta (Scientific Notes of Gorki State University), 1949.
V.M. Chkhikvadze M.A. Bakradze (1991) ArticleTitleOn the Taxonomic Position of Modern Turtle from the Araks River Valley Tr. Tbilis. Gos. Univ. 305 59–63
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Translated from Genetika, Vol. 40, No. 12, 2004, pp. 1628–1636.
Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Semyenova, Korsunenko, Vasilyev, Pereschkolnik, Mazanaeva, Bannikova, Ryskov.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Semyenova, S.K., Korsunenko, A.V., Vasilyev, V.A. et al. RAPD variation in Mediterranean turtle Testudo graeca L. (Testudinidae). Russ J Genet 40, 1348–1355 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11177-005-0056-2
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11177-005-0056-2