Research on genetic diversity of the genus Acanthodactylus inTurkey by using DNA barcoding method

The genus Acanthodactylus, a member of the Lacertidae family, includes 45 species. Of this genus A . boskianus, A. schreiberi, A. harranensis and A. ilgazi species live in our country. There is complexity among the taxa of this genus. Although there are many studies based on molecular markers to remove this complexity, there is not study using the DNA barcoding approach. In this study, the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene region was preferred for the application of barcoding technique and it was aimed to determine the taxanomic status of the species belonging to the genus Acanthodactylus, which is widespread in our country. In total, 22 samples from 4 localities were evaluated, and the 594 base pair partial sequence of the COI gene region was analyzed. It was determined that the data set included in the analyses contains 5 different haplotypes in total. First of all, gene tree (NeighbourJoining, Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference) analyzes were carried out to establish an accurate phylogenetic configuration among species. Afterwards, the potential of the resulting monophyletic groups to represent a species was tested by species delimitation (ABGD, bPTP, mPTP, GMYC and TCS). In the tree topologies obtained as a result of phylogenetic analyses, it was observed that each species in the study branched as a separate monophyletic group. As a result of the species tree analyses, it was found that ABGD, bPTP and GMYC analyses distinguish each monophyletic group as a species. On the other hand, it was observed that mPTP analysis divided the study group into 2 species and TCS analysis divided the study group into 5 species. In the results of barcode analysis, the closest related species are A. boskianus and A. schreiberi, while the most distant species are A. ilgazi and A. schreiberi. This study requires more detailed new studies for an accurate taxonomic arrangement of Acanthodactylus species, which is one of the biological riches of our country in terms of herpetofauna