Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Phylogenetic, population genetic, and morphological analyses reveal evidence for one species of Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi)

Brian Folt, Javan Bauder, Stephen Spear, Dirk Stevenson, Michelle Hoffman, Jamie Oaks, Christopher Jenkins, David Steen, Craig Guyer
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/318766
Brian Folt
Auburn University;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: brian.folt@gmail.com
Javan Bauder
The Orianne Society; University of Massachusetts;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Stephen Spear
The Wilds;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Dirk Stevenson
The Orianne Society;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Michelle Hoffman
The Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation, Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jamie Oaks
Auburn University;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Christopher Jenkins
The Orianne Society;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
David Steen
Auburn University;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Craig Guyer
Auburn University;
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Accurate species delimitation and description are necessary to guide effective conservation management of imperiled species. The Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi) is a large species in North America that is federally-protected as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Recently, two associated studies hypothesized that Drymarchon couperi is two species. Here, we use diverse approaches to test the two-species hypothesis for D. couperi. Our analyses reveal that (1) phylogenetic reconstruction in previous studies was based entirely on variance of mitochondrial DNA sequence data, (2) microsatellite data demonstrate significant population admixture and nuclear gene flow between mitochondrial lineages, and (3) morphological analyses recover a single diagnosable species. Our results are inconsistent with the two-species hypothesis, thus we reject it and formally place Drymarchon kolpobasileus into synonymy with D. couperi. We suggest inconsistent patterns between mitochondrial and nuclear DNA may be driven by high dispersal of males relative to females. We caution against species delimitation exercises when one or few loci are used without evaluation of contemporary gene flow, particularly species with strong sex-biased dispersal (e.g., squamates) and/or when results have implications for ongoing conservation efforts.

Footnotes

  • This is a revised version (25 October 2018) of the manuscript that we previously submitted on BioRxiv (11 May 2018). In the current version, we have included more detailed analyses of population genetic structure, changed the structure of the methods section, made general edits to the text, and altered the formatting of the manuscript.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 26, 2018.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Phylogenetic, population genetic, and morphological analyses reveal evidence for one species of Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi)
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
Share
Phylogenetic, population genetic, and morphological analyses reveal evidence for one species of Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi)
Brian Folt, Javan Bauder, Stephen Spear, Dirk Stevenson, Michelle Hoffman, Jamie Oaks, Christopher Jenkins, David Steen, Craig Guyer
bioRxiv 318766; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/318766
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Phylogenetic, population genetic, and morphological analyses reveal evidence for one species of Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi)
Brian Folt, Javan Bauder, Stephen Spear, Dirk Stevenson, Michelle Hoffman, Jamie Oaks, Christopher Jenkins, David Steen, Craig Guyer
bioRxiv 318766; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/318766

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Zoology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (996)
  • Biochemistry (1485)
  • Bioengineering (938)
  • Bioinformatics (6803)
  • Biophysics (2414)
  • Cancer Biology (1782)
  • Cell Biology (2514)
  • Clinical Trials (106)
  • Developmental Biology (1683)
  • Ecology (2553)
  • Epidemiology (1488)
  • Evolutionary Biology (5003)
  • Genetics (3598)
  • Genomics (4614)
  • Immunology (1156)
  • Microbiology (4222)
  • Molecular Biology (1617)
  • Neuroscience (10740)
  • Paleontology (81)
  • Pathology (236)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (407)
  • Physiology (552)
  • Plant Biology (1443)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (410)
  • Synthetic Biology (542)
  • Systems Biology (1868)
  • Zoology (257)