Abstract
Anatolian mountain frogs (Rana macrocnemis, Rana camerani, Rana holtzi, and Rana tavasensis) are one of the most specious amphibian groups in Turkey containing two endemic taxa (R. holtzi and R. tavasensis). The taxonomy of this group remains controversial as there are several unresolved issues.In the present study, we aimed to resolve the taxonomic uncertainty of the Anatolian mountain frogs through two mitochondrial genes (CYTB, 481 bp and COI, 743 bp) and two protein-coding nuclear genes (POMC, 401 bp and RAG1, 717 bp). The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers were found to be highly polymorphic in this group. Haplotype network analysis revealed that R. tavasensis was different for at least 33 and 52 mutational steps according to CYTB and COI gene regions, respectively. High bootstrap and posterior probability values obtained from the mtDNA genes support the idea that Anatolian mountain frogs are represented by two distinct species in Anatolia: R. macrocnemis and R. tavasensis. However, no genetic variation was detected according to nuclear DNA (nDNA) markers.The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed no differences among the groups of R. macrocnemis, R. camerani, and R. holtzi. Despite the low genetic distance among R. macrocnemis, R. camerani, and R. holtzi species, the pairwise distances estimated from R. tavasensis were higher compared with other Anatolian mountain frog lineages.
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