Genetic variations and phylogenetic relationship of genus Uromastyx from Punjab Pakistan.

S Malik,R Noor,S Ghafoor,A Hussain,A Javid,S Husaain,M Hussain,S Suleman,W Ali,S M Bukhari,G Mustafa,N Ismat,M Rashid

doi:10.1590/1519-6984.254253

Abstract

During the present study, specimens were collected from selected sites of Cholistan desert and Kalabagh Game Reserve, Punjab province, Pakistan. Each captured specimen was tagged with voucher number and morphometric measurements were taken. The average snout to vent length was 172.559±1.40 mm and average weight was 92.1±1.30 g. The DNA of Uromastyx hardwickii was amplified and sequenced using 16S rRNA primer set. The obtained DNA sequence has shown reliable and clear species identification. After trimming ambiguous bases, the obtained 16S rRNA fragment was 520 bp while 16S rRNA fragments aligned with closely matched sequence from NCBI comprised of 510 bp. Closely matched sequences of genus Uromastyx were retrieved from NCBI in blast searches. Neighbour-joining tree of genus Uromastyx was constructed based on p-distance using MEGA X. The mean intraspecific variation was 0.095±0.01 while intraspecific variation was ranging from 0-1%. Similarly, interspecific variation of Uromastyx hardwikii with Saara asmussi, Uromastyx alfredschmidti, Uromastyx geyri, Uromastyx thomasi, Uromastyx alfredschmidti was 0-12%, 0-19%, 0-19%, 0-20%, 12-19% respectively. The newly produced DNA was submitted to NCBI and accession number was obtained (MW052563.1). Results of current study provided information about the molecular and morphological identification of Genus Uromastyx. In our recommendation, comprehensive molecular based identification of Pakistan's reptiles is required to report any new or subspecies from country.

Highlights

The changes that reptiles faced over millions of years results in massive diversity in their morphology, behavior, ecology history of life and in strategies against their predators
Pakistan is represented by two species of genus Uromastyx namely Uromastyx hardwickii and Uromastyx asmussi
The specimens of Uromastyx hardwickii (Figure 1) were collected from selected sites of District Bahawalnagar and Kalabagh Game Reserve, Punjab province, Pakistan (Figure 2) during field surveys extended from May to August, 2020

Summary

Introduction

The changes that reptiles faced over millions of years results in massive diversity in their morphology, behavior, ecology history of life and in strategies against their predators. Reptiles are the mixture of Palearctic, Ethiopian and Indo-Malayan forms in Pakistan and are represented by 195 reptiles, and consists of 23 families including Dermochelyidae, Cheloniidae, Emydidae, Testudinidae, Trionychidae, Gavialidae, Crocodylidae, Agamidae, Chameleonidae, Gekkonidae, Eublepharidae, Scincidae, Lacertidae, Varanidae, Uromastycidae, Typhlopidae, Leptotyphlopidae, Colubridae, Boidae, Elapidae, Hydrophiidae, Elapidae, Crotalidae and Viperidae (Khan et al 2010). Out of these thirteen species are endemic to country. Only 40% of reptiles’ species have their Conservation status and about 4,000 were not assessed yet (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2009)

Methods

Results

Conclusion