Articles
Preliminary genetic characterisation of Southern Smooth Snake Coronella girondica (Serpentes, Colubridae) populations in Italy, with some considerations on their alpine distribution
Published 2022-07-18
Keywords
- Coronella girondica,
- Italy,
- distribution,
- relict populations
How to Cite
Di Nicola, M. R., Melfi, R., Faraone, F. P., Iversen, D. L., Giacalone, G., Paolino, G., & Lo Valvo, M. (2022). Preliminary genetic characterisation of Southern Smooth Snake Coronella girondica (Serpentes, Colubridae) populations in Italy, with some considerations on their alpine distribution. Acta Herpetologica, 17(2), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-12556
Abstract
The Southern smooth snake, Coronella girondica, is a small-sized colubrid found in Northwest Africa and Southwest Europe. Mitochondrial DNA-based studies showed that the species can be split into five clades: two from Northwest Africa (one Moroccan and one Tunisian-Algerian) and three from Europe (one in the south-west of the Iberian Peninsula, one in the south-east of Spain and one in the rest of the European range). With regards to Italy, to date, only two samples have been analysed both from the Province of Pisa, Tuscany, pointing at that fact that genetic characterisation of Italian populations is still lacking. Accordingly, we have increased the sampling coverage with 19 new samples from northern and central regions of Italy, including two populations, apparently disconnected from the rest of the known range, and analysed their phylogenetic relationships using a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Our results confirm the general phylogenetic arrangement detected in previous studies; specifically for Italian populations, no variability emerged from the Apennine populations, and a slight differentiation could be shown for the Alpine and subalpine ones. This pattern can be explained assuming past spread and recent isolation of C. girondica relict populations in the Alpine region, likely during the Last Glacial Maximum. Later, during the Holocene, the Italian Alps and the Po Plain went through various climatic variations and high anthropization which may have influenced C. girondica distribution through expansion and contraction processes.
References
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Geniez, P. (2018): Snakes of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. A photographic guide. Princeton University Press.
Gratani, L., Varone L. (2003): Structural and functional plasticity of Quercus ilex seedlings of different provenances in Italy. Trees - Struct. Funct. 17: 515-521.
Guicking, D., Joger, U., Wink, M. (2002): Molecular phylogeography of the Viperine Snake Natrix maura and the Dice Snake Natrix tessellata: first results. Biota 3: 49-59.
Guindon, S., Dufayard, J.F., Lefort, V., Anisimova, M., Hordijk, W., Gascuel, O. (2010): New algorithms and methods to estimate Maximum-Likelihood phylogenies: assessing the performance of PhyML 3.0. Syst. Biol. 59: 307-321.
Haklay, M.M., Dörler, D., Heigl, F., Manzoni, M., Hecker, S., Vohland, K. (2021): What is citizen science? The challenges of definition. In: The Science of Citizen Science, pp: 13-33, Vohland, K., Land-Zandstra, A., Ceccaroni, L., Lemmens, R., Perelló, J., Ponti, M., Samson, R., Wagenknecht, K., Eds, Springer, Amsterdam.
Hewitt, G.M. (2011): Mediterranean Peninsulas - the evolution of hotspots. In: Biodiversity Hotspots, p. 123-148, Zachos, F.E., Habel, J.C., Eds, Springer, Amsterdam.
Iversen, D.L.N., Tabarelli De Fatis, K., Romano, A., Pedrini, P., Di Nicola, M.R. (2020): The Southern Smooth Snake, Coronella girondica (Daudin, 1803), in North-East Italy: new findings and a review of the historical distribution. Herpetol. Notes 13: 543-548.
Joannin, S., Vannière, B., Galop, D, Peyron, O., Haas, J.N., Gilli, A., Chapron, E., Wirth, S.B., Anselmetti, F., Desmet M., Magny, M. (2013): Climate and vegetation changes during the Lateglacial and early-middle Holocene at Lake Ledro (southern Alps, Italy). Clim. Past 9: 913-933.
Kindler, C., Chèvre, M., Ursenbacher, S., Böhme, W., Hille, A., Jablonski, D., Vamberger, M., Fritz, U. (2017): Hybridization patterns in two contact zones of grass snakes reveal a new Central European snake species. Sci. Rep. 7: 7378.
Kocher, T.D., Thomas, W.K., Meyer, A., Edwards, S.V., Paabo, S., Villablanca, F.X., Wilson A.C. (1989): Dynamics of mitochondrial DNA evolution in animals: amplification and sequencing with conserved primers. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86: 6196-6200.
La Greca, M. (1956): Significato biogeografico di ripartizioni disgiunte in Ortotteri non montani d’Italia. Arch. Bot. Bioegeogr. Ital. 32: 113-129.
Larkin, M.A., Blackshields, G., Brown, N.P., Chenna, R., Mcgettigan, P.A., Mcwilliam, H., Valentin, F., Wallace, I.M., Wilm, A., Lopez, R., Thompson, J.D., Gibson, T.J., Higgins, D.G. (2007): Clustal W and Clustal X version 2.0. Bioinformatics 23: 2947-2948.
Lefort, V., Longueville, J.-E, Gascuel, O. (2017): SMS: Smart Model Selection in PhyML. Mol. Biol. Evol. 34: 2422-2424.
Leigh, J.W., Bryant, D. (2015): Data from: PopART: Full-feature software for haplotype network construction. Methods Ecol. Evol. 6: 1110-1116.
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