Phylogenetic Relationships and Morphology of the Pristimantis Leptolophus Species Group
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Zootaxa 4243 (1): 042–074 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2017 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4243.1.2 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B4D35FB5-BC82-426C-BFCF-4EEF4D6EAFE6 Phylogenetic relationships and morphology of the Pristimantis leptolophus species group (Amphibia: Anura: Brachycephaloidea), with the recognition of a new species group in Pristimantis Jiménez de la Espada, 1870 GUSTAVO A. GONZÁLEZ-DURÁN1, MARIANE TARGINO2, MARCO RADA2 & TARAN GRANT2,3 1Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Laboratorio de Anfibios, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia, 111321 2Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil, 05508-090 3Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract We evaluate the monophyly and phylogenetic relationships of the Pristimantis leptolophus species group and describe its external morphology, osteology, and some myological characteristics. We also compare the P. leptolophus species group to other related species groups. The P. leptolophus group is not monophyletic due to the inclusion of P. acatallelus, for- merly believed to be part of the P. devillei group. The revised P. leptolophus group is composed of nine named species and six unnamed species. Based on our results, we recognize a new species group, the P. boulengeri species group, com- posed of eight species, many of which were previously assigned to the P. lacrimosus species group. Key words: Craugastoridae, myology, osteology, phylogeny, systematics, terrarana Introduction With 494 species of Neotropical, direct-developing frogs (Frost, 2016), Pristimantis Jiménez de La Espada, 1870 is the richest genus of vertebrates. The largest phylogenetic analysis of the genus included only approximately 33% (160 species, Mendoza et al. 2015), meaning that the phylogenetic relationships of most species have never been tested. Padial et al. (2014a, b) recognized 11 species groups, although most species were not assigned to any group. Three species groups have not been included in any phylogenetic analysis: the Pristimantis bellona, P. leptolophus, and P. loustes species groups. The characters used to diagnose these species groups areunderstudied, rendering the taxonomic placement of newly described species tentative and frequently erroneous without genetic data (Padial et al., 2014a). The Pristimantis leptolophus group was proposed by Lynch (1991) as an explicitly phenetic assemblage lacking known synapomorphies. The group currently comprises eight species distributed in the Cordillera Central and northern Cordillera Occidental of Colombia: P. leptolophus (Lynch, 1980), P. peraticus (Lynch, 1980), P. maculosus (Lynch, 1991), P. parectatus (Lynch and Rueda-Almonacid, 1997), P. scoloblepharus (Lynch, 1991), P. uranobates (Lynch, 1991), P. lasalleorum (Lynch, 1995), and P. stictus (González-Durán, 2016). As noted by Lynch (1991), species of the P. leptolophus group resemble the species of the P. myersi group. Hedges et al. (2008) proposed a phenotypic diagnosis for the Pristimantis leptolophus group following those of Lynch (1991) and Lynch and Duellman (1997): 1) small size (female snout–vent length [SVL] < 30 mm); 2) robust bodies, narrow heads, short snouts, moderately long legs; Finger I shorter than Finger II, Toe V much longer than Toe III, extending to distal edge of distal subarticular tubercle on Toe IV; 3) digital discs expanded; 4) tympanic membrane and annulus usually present but weakly defined (tympanic membrane and annulus absent in P. peraticus); 5) cranial crests absent; 6) vocal slits and vomerine teeth present. Nevertheless, these characters do not permit the unequivocal assignment of species to the P. leptolophus group, and variation within the species of the group is not discussed, i.e., some species/individuals lack some or all the character states. 42 Accepted by J. Padial: 19 Jan. 2017; published: 14 Mar. 2017 Herein, we test the monophyly of the Pristimantis leptolophus group, the relationships among its species, and its relationship with other species and species groups of Pristimantis based on evidence from DNA sequences. Additionally, we review the morphological characters purported to diagnose the P. leptolophus group and discuss the evolution of some phenotypic characters. Methods DNA Sequences. We sequenced fragments of different length of the mitochondrial H-strand transcription unit 1 (H1), one comprising partial 12S rRNA, complete tRNAval and partial 16S rRNA (~1500−2400 bp), and other comprising only partial 16S rRNA (~580−1000 bp). For a subset of samples we also sequenced exons of three nuclear genes: recombination activating gene 1 (RAG-1), tyrosinase precursor gene (TYR), and proopiomelanocortin A (POMC). Primers are listed in Table 1 and specimens and GenBank numbers in Appendices 1 and 2. TABLE 1. Primers employed in this study for PCR and DNA sequencing. F = forward, R = reverse. Gene Primer name Primer sequence (5’-3’) Source region 12S MVZ59 (F) ATAGCACTGAAAAYGCTDAGATG Graybeal, 1997 12S F-H (R) CTTGGCTCGTAGTTCCCTGGCG Goebel et al., 1999 12S A-L (F) AAACTGGGATTAGATACCCCACTAT Goebel et al., 1999 MVZ50 (R) TYTCGGTGTAAGYGARAKGCTT Graybeal, 1997 L13 (F) TTAGAAGAGGCAAGTCGTAACATGGTA Feller and Hedges (1998) 16S Titus I (R) GGTGGCTGCTTTTAGGCC? Titus and Larson (1996) L2A (F) CCAAACGAGCCTAGTGATAGCTGGTT Hedges (1994)? H10 (R) TGATTACGCTACCTTTGCACGGT Hedges (1994) AR (F) CGCCTGTTTATCAAAAACAT Palumbi et al. (1991) BR (R) CCGGTCTGAACTCAGATCACGT Palumbi et al. (1991)? POMC POMC 1 (F) GAATGTATYAAAGMMTGCAAGATGGWCCT Wiens et al. (2005) POMC 2 (R) TAYTGRCCCTTYTTGTGGGCRTT Wiens et al. (2005) RAG RAG1FF2 (F) ATGCATCRAAAATTCARCAAT Heinicke et al. (2007) RAG1FR2 (R)CCYCCTTTRTTGATAKGGWCATA Heinicke et al. (2007) TYR TYR1F (F) GTTGTYGTATCTACCTCRCC Heinicke et al. (2007) TYR1R (R) GMAGGGAATGGTGAARTTCTC Heinicke et al. (2007) Whole cellular DNA was extracted from ethanol-preserved tissues, liver or thigh muscle, with the DNeasy (QIAGEN, Valencia, CA) isolation kit. Amplification was carried out in a 25μl reaction using the Thermo Scientific PCR Master Mix (2X) (Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., USA). For the amplifications, the PCR program included an initial denaturing step of 30s at 96°C, followed by 35 (mitochondrial gene fragments) or 45 (nuclear gene fragments) cycles of amplification (96°C for 30 s; 48–54°C for 30 s; 60°C for 60s), with a final extension step at 60°C for 7 min. For low-yielding samples, the annealing temperature was lowered to 46°C. PCR amplification products were cleaned using the Agencourt AMPure XP DNA Purification and Cleanup kit (Beckman Coulter Genomics, Brea, CA, USA), and sequenced by a third party using fluorescent-dye labelled terminators (ABI Prism Big Dye Terminators v. 1.1 cycle sequencing kits; Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA) with an ABI 3730XL (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA). All samples were sequenced in both directions to check for potential errors. Chromatograms obtained from the automated sequencer were read and contigs made using the sequence editing software Sequencher 5.2.3. (Gene Codes, Ann Arbor, MI, USA). Complete sequences were edited and pairwise distances calculated with Geneious v.6.1.6 (Kearse et al., 2012). In addition to data generated in this study, we included data for those loci and the following additional loci from GenBank (Appendix I): The protein coding mtDNA genes cytochrome b (cytb), cytochrome c oxidase PHYLOGENY OF THE PRISTIMANTIS LEPTOLOPHUS SPECIES GROUP Zootaxa 4243 (1) © 2017 Magnolia Press · 43 subunit I (COI), and NADH dehydrogenase subunit II (ND2) and intervening tRNAcyst, and the nuclear protein- coding genes cellular myelocytomatosis (c-myc; exon two), chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4), histone H3 (HH3), sodium-calcium exchanger 1 (NCX1), rhodopsin (Rhod), seven-in-absentia (SIA), and solute carrier family 8 member 3 (SLC8A3). In cases in which museum vouchers were not available from either GenBank or the respective publications, we use either the identifiers provided by the original authors or the last name of the first author of the publication. Taxon sampling. We obtained new DNA sequence data from 19 individuals representing seven named species of the Pristimantis leptolophus group and five unnamed species in process of description. Additional sequences representing 114 species of Pristimantis, including different species groups, were obtained from GenBank, mostly provided in studies by Pinto-Sanchéz et al. (2012), García-R. et al. (2012), Mendoza et al. (2015), and Mahecha et al., an unpublished study carried out in the Instituto de Ciencias Naturales (ICN), Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which generated sequences of COI and 16S. These sequences are available on GenBank, but it was not possible to locate the vouchers in the ICN amphibian collection, so the identities were not corroborated. Only specimens with at least one fragment of H1 mitochondrial region sequenced were used here. Based on our quality control assessment we excluded several sequences from GenBank, as follows: From Mahecha et al. we excluded the cytochrome b sequences from Pristimantis lutitus (JDL 26126), P. anolirex (JDL 26115), P. merostictus (JDL 26125), P. eriphus (JJM 210), and P. w-nigrum (DM 1235) because they are almost identical while showing 4–7% distance between the first three specimens, and 18.7% distance in 16S between the two last specimens, as well as the terminals of P. boulengeri (MAV 257) and P. simoterus