Sidharthan, C and Roy, P and Narayanan, S and Karanth, KP (2022) A widespread commensal loses its identity: suggested taxonomic revision for Indotyphlops braminus (Scolecophidia: Typhlopidae) based on molecular data. In: Organisms Diversity and Evolution .
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Abstract
The widespread human commensal blindsnake species Indotyphlops braminus is currently the only known obligate parthenogenetic snake species. It is also known to be triploid. However, much of these data is from specimens collected outside India which is the native range of this species. Polyploidy and parthenogenesis are often associated with hybridization in amphibians and lizards. In this study, we generated nuclear and mitochondrial data from multiple Indotyphlops lineages from across peninsular India and investigated the possible hybrid origin of I. braminus. Species delimitation suggested three putative species, one of which was I. pammeces and the other two morphologically matched I. braminus. One of these was confined to the wet zone (high rainfall areas) while the other was largely distributed in the dry zone. There was wide discordance in the relationships between these lineages across markers and different tree building approaches suggesting past or ongoing geneflow. The statistical test for hybridization also implied geneflow across these three lineages. Furthermore, the dry zone I. braminus appears to be true I. braminus as the topotypic material falls within this clade. These results suggest that the widespread, commensal, and parthenogenetic Indotyphlops is a separate species from I. braminus, and further investigation is required to determine diagnostic morphological characters for a species description.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
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| Publication: | Organisms Diversity and Evolution |
| Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH |
| Additional Information: | The copyright for this article belongs to the Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. |
| Keywords: | Hybridization; Parthenogenesis; Phylogenetics; Typhlopidae |
| Department/Centre: | Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Sep 2022 05:48 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Sep 2022 05:48 |
| URI: | https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/76413 |
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