Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Brigham Young University

MtDNA

Articles 1 - 5 of 5

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Gene Flow And Dispersal Of The Caddisfly, Neothremma Alicia, In The Rocky Mountains Of Utah: A Multiscale Analysis, Xioben Jiang Apr 2010

Gene Flow And Dispersal Of The Caddisfly, Neothremma Alicia, In The Rocky Mountains Of Utah: A Multiscale Analysis, Xioben Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

We determined genetic variance and gene flow across multiple scales (reaches, tributaries, and catchments) to examine the dispersal ability of the caddisfly, Neothremma alicia in streams along the Wasatch Range in the Rocky Mountains of Utah. Neothremma alicia is one of the most abundant caddisflies in this region. We generated DNA sequence data (mitochondrial COI) from 34 reaches, nested in 15 tributaries distributed across 3 adjacent catchments. We identified 47 haplotypes from a total of 486 individuals. The most abundant haplotype (H1) was found at all sites/reaches and comprised 44% of the total number of individuals sequenced. The remaining rare …


Many Species In One: Dna Barcoding Overestimates The Number Of Species When Nuclear Mitochondrial Pseudogenes Are Coamplified, Michael F. Whiting, Hojun Song, Keith A. Crandall, Jennifer E. Buhay Sep 2008

Many Species In One: Dna Barcoding Overestimates The Number Of Species When Nuclear Mitochondrial Pseudogenes Are Coamplified, Michael F. Whiting, Hojun Song, Keith A. Crandall, Jennifer E. Buhay

Faculty Publications

Nuclear mitochondrial pseudogenes (numts) are nonfunctional copies of mtDNA in the nucleus that have been found in major clades of eukaryotic organisms.


Comparative Phylogeography Of Codistributed Species Of Chilean Liolaemus (Squamata: Tropiduridae) From The Central-Southern Andean Range, Byron J. Adams, Pedro F. Victoriano, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Edgar Benavides, Jack W. Sites May 2008

Comparative Phylogeography Of Codistributed Species Of Chilean Liolaemus (Squamata: Tropiduridae) From The Central-Southern Andean Range, Byron J. Adams, Pedro F. Victoriano, Juan Carlos Ortiz, Edgar Benavides, Jack W. Sites

Faculty Publications

In this study, we used a recently developed supertrees method to test for shared phylogeographical signal in partially overlapping geographical ranges of lizards of the genus Liolaemus from the Andean Range in south-central Chile. We reconstruct mtDNA gene trees for three partially codistributed species (Liolaemus tenuis, L. lemniscatus and L. pictus), and our sampling effort is sufficient to allow statistical tests of shared signal between the combinations L. tenuis-L. pictus, and L. tenuis-L. lemniscatus. For both combinations, standardized maximum agreement subtrees scores showed statistically significant signal for shared pattern in regions of overlap, as evaluated by randomization tests (P < 0.001 and < 0.05, respectively). The matrix representation with parsimony tree obtained from the combination of the three different gene trees revealed concordant phylogeographical associations of all species, and was consistent with the geographical association of intraspecific haploclades with three Chilean bioclimatic zones. A multidimensional scaling analysis of several climate variables showed highly significant differences among these zones, which further suggests that they may have contributed to similar patterns of intraspecific divergence across all three species. In the mesomorphic zone in Central Chile, the species L. tenuis and L. lemniscatus may have codiverged in response to shared orogenic vicariant events, which likely predominated over climatic events associated with cycles of glacial advance and retreat. In the hygromorphic zone in southern Chile, however, glacial cycles likely predominated in structuring the phylogeographical histories of L. tenuis and L. pictus, although important ecological differences between these two caution against broad generalizations at this point.


Evolution In Neotropical Herpetofauna: Species Boundaries In High Andean Frogs And Evolutionary Genetics In The Lava Lizard Genus Microlophus (Squamata: Tropiduridae): A History Of Colonization And Dispersal, Edgar Benavides Dec 2006

Evolution In Neotropical Herpetofauna: Species Boundaries In High Andean Frogs And Evolutionary Genetics In The Lava Lizard Genus Microlophus (Squamata: Tropiduridae): A History Of Colonization And Dispersal, Edgar Benavides

Theses and Dissertations

In this collection of papers I have summarized my investigations into the field of evolutionary genetics and more specifically into patterns of biodiversity and evolutionary processes. The lizards (and frogs) studied here share common features in that they are largely present in unique environments, which are also regions that are biologically understudied. Most of these taxa show high degrees of endemism, interesting natural history characteristics, and each group manifests distinctive adaptations of general evolutionary interest. My work in the genus Telmatobius has been a progressive approach that began in my MS program, and it first focused on alpha taxonomy, morphological …


Testing Species Boundaries In An Ancient Species Complex With Deep Phylogeographic History: Genus Xantusia (Squamata: Xantusiidae), Keith A. Crandall, Elizabeth A. Sinclair, Robert L. Bezy, Kathryn Bolles, Jose L. Camarillo, Jack W. Sites Sep 2004

Testing Species Boundaries In An Ancient Species Complex With Deep Phylogeographic History: Genus Xantusia (Squamata: Xantusiidae), Keith A. Crandall, Elizabeth A. Sinclair, Robert L. Bezy, Kathryn Bolles, Jose L. Camarillo, Jack W. Sites

Faculty Publications

Identification of species in natural populations has recently received increased attention with a number of investigators proposing rigorous methods for species delimitation. Morphologically conservative species (or species complexes) with deep phylogenetic histories (and limited gene flow) are likely to pose particular problems when attempting to delimit species, yet this is crucial to comparative studies of the geography of speciation. We apply two methods of species delimitation to an ancient group of lizards (genus Xantusia) that occur throughout southwestern North America. Mitochondrial cytochrome b and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 4 gene sequences were generated from samples taken throughout the geographic …