受气候和景观特征急剧变化的影响,广泛分布的物种为研究环境对其进化和当前遗传多样性的影响提供了合适的模型。骰子蛇Natrixtessellata,广泛分布在西部古北地区就是这样一种物种。我们的目标是解决奈瑟拉的详细系统地理学,重点是具有4个线粒体谱系的中亚进化枝和具有3个线粒体谱系的安纳托利亚进化枝,追踪它们的起源,并关联影响它们随时间分布的环境变化。两个分支的预期发散时间始于上新世的3.7Mya,大约一百万年后达到谱系分化。两个分支的遗传多样性都很丰富,暗示不同的祖先地区,冰川避难所,人口变化,和殖民路线。里海血统是中亚最广泛的血统,分布在里海周围,到达阿富汗兴都库什山脉的山麓,和东欧西部的低地。它的分布受到沙漠的限制,山,和寒冷的草原环境。同样,哈萨克斯坦和乌兹别克斯坦的血统跟随中亚的阿姆河和SyrDarya水系统,范围由Kyzylkum和Karakum沙漠划定。在西边,安纳托利亚进化枝内有几个血统汇聚在半岛中部,其中2个是西亚特有的。这两个主要分支的分布受到里海周围和中亚山谷中更新世冰川避难所的扩展以及环境变化的影响,主要是通过干旱。
Influenced by rapid changes in climate and landscape features since the Miocene, widely distributed species provide suitable models to study the environmental impact on their evolution and current genetic diversity. The dice snake Natrix tessellata, widely distributed in the Western Palearctic is one such species. We aimed to resolve a detailed phylogeography of N. tessellata with a focus on the Central Asian clade with 4 and the Anatolia clade with 3 mitochondrial lineages, trace their origin, and correlate the environmental changes that affected their distribution through time. The expected time of divergence of both clades began at 3.7 Mya in the Pliocene, reaching lineage differentiation approximately 1 million years later. The genetic diversity in both clades is rich, suggesting different ancestral areas, glacial
refugia, demographic changes, and colonization routes. The Caspian lineage is the most widespread lineage in Central Asia, distributed around the Caspian Sea and reaching the foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan, and Eastern European lowlands in the west. Its distribution is limited by deserts, mountains, and cold steppe environments. Similarly, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan lineages followed the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya water systems in Central Asia, with ranges delimited by the large Kyzylkum and Karakum deserts. On the western side, there are several lineages within the Anatolia clade that converged in the central part of the peninsula with 2 being endemic to Western Asia. The distribution of both main clades was affected by expansion from their Pleistocene glacial
refugia around the Caspian Sea and in the valleys of Central Asia as well as by environmental changes, mostly through aridification.