Phylogeographic Analysis Of Pelophylax Nigromaculata Populations Using Microsatellite DNA

This thesis is constituted by three chapters.Chapter one:Summarize the ancient global climate change especially the glacial climate change in Quaternary and its influence on the biota.Chapter two:Introduce the microsatellite markers and its applications in molecular phylogeography.Chapter three:The genetic diversity and structure of Pelophlax nigromaculata were investigated by analyzing 5 microsatellite loci for 727 samples collected from 53 locations in temperate and subtropical China. Basic statistics showed that the mean overall values of HO and HE were 0.6548±0.0840 and 0.8897±0.0581 respectively. The SRTUCTURE and FCA results showed that two split lineages are included in this species:the mainland lineage (Cluster Ⅰ) and the northeast lineage (Cluster Ⅱ). Cluster Ⅰ covers most of the species’ range in China, and Cluster Ⅱ is just restricted to the east part of northeast China. Further analyses indicate that Cluster Ⅰ can be further divided into two sub-lineages, Cluster Ⅰ-1 and Cluster Ⅰ-2. The gene flow analyses indicate the current distribution of this frog was the result of expansion from independent refugia after LGM. The refugium for Cluster Ⅰ included Eastern monsoon China, the Hengduan Mountains, and Sichuan-Guizhou area, and the refugia for Cluster Ⅱ was Korea Peninsula. The secondary contact zone is found between habitats of those two clades in the west part of northeast China with a complex geomorphology. It is a north-south corridor across the range of three provinces and six cities.