Efficient screening for ‘genetic pollution’ in an anthropogenic crested newt hybrid zone

Genetic admixture between endangered native and non-native invasive species poses a complex conservation problem. Decision makers often need to quickly screen large numbers of individuals and distinguish natives from morphologically similar invading species and their genetically admixed offspring. We describe a protocol using the fast and economical Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR (KASP) technology for genotyping on a large scale. We apply this protocol to a case study of hybridization between a native and an invasive crested newt species. Using previously published data, we designed a panel of ten nuclear and one mitochondrial diagnostic SNP markers. We observed only minor differences between KASP and next-generation sequencing data previously produced with the Ion Torrent platform. We briefly discuss practical considerations for tackling the insidious conservation problem of genetic admixture between native and invasive species. The KASP genotyping protocol facilitates policy decision making for the crested newt case and is generally applicable to invasive hybridization with endangered taxa

Morphometrics of the yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) in the Central Balkans: Implications for taxonomy and zoogeography

A comprehensive survey of the Central Balkan yellow-bellied toad (Bombina variegata) populations was undertaken to describe morphometric differentiation between 4 geographic groups previously demarcated by molecular studies. Our analyses confirmed pronounced geographic structuring at the population level, as well as a clear transition over a relatively short distance separating the localized B. v. scabra, endemic to the Balkans, and the widely distributed B. v. variegata. We present the inferred range boundaries of these geographic groups in the Central Balkans, and discuss their historical zoogeography and taxonomy. Our study provides evidence that the Northern Balkans, a secondary transition zone of postglacial origin, constitutes an important European suture area for amphibians.nul

Genetic divergence and evolution of reproductive isolation in eastern mediterranean water frogs

Water frogs [genus Pelophylax (Rana)] that occur around the eastern Mediterranean Sea provide an opportunity to study early stages of speciation. The geography of the eastern Mediterranean region has changed dramatically since the Middle Miocene as a result of motions of adjoining lithospheric plates and regional-scale vertical crustal motions (uplift and subsidence). For several hundred thousand years between 6 and 5 million years ago (Mya), the Mediterranean basin was isolated from the Atlantic Ocean, and became desiccated (the Messinian Salinity Crisis; MSC). Geological data suggest that the endemic water frog lineage on Cyprus was isolated by the flooding of the Mediterranean basin by salt water at the end of the MSC, circa 5.5–5.3 Mya