Diversifying into the branches: species boundaries in African green and bush snakes, Philothamnus (Serpentes: Colubridae)

Publication date: Available online 23 October 2018Source: Molecular Phylogenetics and EvolutionAuthor(s): Hanlie M. Engelbrecht, William R. Branch, Eli Greenbaum, Graham J. Alexander, Kate Jackson, Marius Burger, Werner Conradie, Chifundera Kusamba, Ange-Ghislain Zassi-Boulou, Krystal A. TolleyAbstractThe African green and bush snakes of the genus Philothamnus currently comprises 21 species and three subspecies and occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The genus has been the subject of previous taxonomic revisions based on traditional morphological characters and limited genetic assessment, and may not reflect their evolutionary history. Indeed, previous findings based on phylogenetics show discordant results of interspecific relationships and question the monophyly of the genus, although taxon sampling has been limited to date. We investigated phylogenetic affinities within Philothamnus with more inclusive genetic and geographical sampling, with the aim of better understanding their evolutionary history, so that future taxonomic revision of Philothamnus can be better informed. Species relationships were examined within a phylogenetic context and sampling included 133 ingroup samples from 16 taxa. Phylogenies were constructed in Bayesian and likelihood frameworks using three mitochondrial (16S, cyt b and ND4) and two nuclear (c-mos and RAG1) markers. Competing hypotheses relating to the monophyly of the genus were tested with a Shimodaira-Hasegawa test. To examine species bou...
Source: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution - Category: Molecular Biology Source Type: research