Journal
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS AND EVOLUTION
Volume 127, Issue -, Pages 669-681Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.06.013
Keywords
Gene flow; Population genomics; Population structure; RADseq; Secondary contact; Viperidae
Funding
- University of Texas at Arlington
- NSF [DEB-1655571, DUE-1161228, DEB 1638879]
- UC Mexus [CN-11-548]
- NSF DDIG [DEB-1501886, DEB-1501747]
- Phi Sigma Beta Phi Chapter research grant
- Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund research grant
- Prairie Biotic Research Inc.
- Sigma Xi
- SnakeDays Research Grant
- Southwestern Association of Naturalists Howard McCarley research grant
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The Mojave rattlesnake (Crotalus scutulatus) inhabits deserts and arid grasslands of the western United States and Mexico. Despite considerable interest in its highly toxic venom and the recognition of two subspecies, no molecular studies have characterized range-wide genetic diversity and population structure or tested species limits within C. scutulatus. We used mitochondrial DNA and thousands of nuclear loci from double-digest restriction site associated DNA sequencing to infer population genetic structure throughout the range of C. scutulatus, and to evaluate divergence times and gene flow between populations. We find strong support for several divergent mitochondrial and nuclear clades of C. scutulatus, including splits coincident with two major phylogeographic barriers: the Continental Divide and the elevational increase associated with the Central Mexican Plateau. We apply Bayesian clustering, phylogenetic inference, and coalescent-based species delimitation to our nuclear genetic data to test hypotheses of population structure. We also performed demographic analyses to test hypotheses relating to population divergence and gene flow. Collectively, our results support the existence of four distinct lineages within C. scutulatus, and genetically defined populations do not correspond with currently recognized subspecies ranges. Finally, we use approximate Bayesian computation to test hypotheses of divergence among multiple rattlesnake species groups distributed across the Continental Divide, and find evidence for co-divergence at this boundary during the mid-Pleistocene.
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