A new genus and three new species of miniaturized microhylid frogs from Indochina (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae: Asterophryinae)

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Abstract

We report on the discovery of a new genus of microhylid subfamily Asterophryinae from northern and eastern Indochina, containing three new species. Vietnamophryne Gen. nov. are secretive miniaturized frogs (SVL<21 mm) with a mostly semi-fossorial lifestyle. To assess phylogenetic relationships, we studied 12S rRNA – 16S rRNA mtDNA fragments with a final alignment of 2 591 bp for 53 microhylid species. Morphological and osteological characters were analyzed using micro-CT scanning and used to describe the new genus. Results of phylogenetic analyses assigned the new genus into the mainly Australasian subfamily Asterophryinae as a sister taxon to the genus Siamophryne from southern Indochina. The three specimens collected from Gia Lai Province in central Vietnam, Cao Bang Province in northern Vietnam, and Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand proved to be separate species, different both in morphology and genetics (genetic divergence 3.1%≤ P≤5.1%). Our work provides further evidence for the “out of Indo-Eurasia” scenario for Asterophryinae, indicating that the initial cladogenesis and differentiation of this group of frogs occurred in the Indochina Peninsula. To date, each of the three new species of Vietnamophryne Gen. nov. is known only from a single specimen; thus, their distribution, life history, and conservation status require further study.

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Vast underestimation of Madagascar's biodiversity evidenced by an integrative amphibian inventory.

David R Vieites, Katharina C. Wollenberg, Franco Andreone … (2009)

Amphibians are in decline worldwide. However, their patterns of diversity, especially in the tropics, are not well understood, mainly because of incomplete information on taxonomy and distribution. We assess morphological, bioacoustic, and genetic variation of Madagascar's amphibians, one of the first near-complete taxon samplings from a biodiversity hotspot. Based on DNA sequences of 2,850 specimens sampled from over 170 localities, our analyses reveal an extreme proportion of amphibian diversity, projecting an almost 2-fold increase in species numbers from the currently described 244 species to a minimum of 373 and up to 465. This diversity is widespread geographically and across most major phylogenetic lineages except in a few previously well-studied genera, and is not restricted to morphologically cryptic clades. We classify the genealogical lineages in confirmed and unconfirmed candidate species or deeply divergent conspecific lineages based on concordance of genetic divergences with other characters. This integrative approach may be widely applicable to improve estimates of organismal diversity. Our results suggest that in Madagascar the spatial pattern of amphibian richness and endemism must be revisited, and current habitat destruction may be affecting more species than previously thought, in amphibians as well as in other animal groups. This case study suggests that worldwide tropical amphibian diversity is probably underestimated at an unprecedented level and stresses the need for integrated taxonomic surveys as a basis for prioritizing conservation efforts within biodiversity hotspots.

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TREEFINDER: a powerful graphical analysis environment for molecular phylogenetics

Gangolf Jobb, Arndt von Haeseler, Korbinian Strimmer (2004)

Background Most analysis programs for inferring molecular phylogenies are difficult to use, in particular for researchers with little programming experience. Results TREEFINDER is an easy-to-use integrative platform-independent analysis environment for molecular phylogenetics. In this paper the main features of TREEFINDER (version of April 2004) are described. TREEFINDER is written in ANSI C and Java and implements powerful statistical approaches for inferring gene tree and related analyzes. In addition, it provides a user-friendly graphical interface and a phylogenetic programming language. Conclusions TREEFINDER is a versatile framework for analyzing phylogenetic data across different platforms that is suited both for exploratory as well as advanced studies.

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Deciphering amphibian diversity through DNA barcoding: chances and challenges.

D R Vieites, Miguel Vences, Meike Thomas … (2005)

Amphibians globally are in decline, yet there is still a tremendous amount of unrecognized diversity, calling for an acceleration of taxonomic exploration. This process will be greatly facilitated by a DNA barcoding system; however, the mitochondrial population structure of many amphibian species presents numerous challenges to such a standardized, single locus, approach. Here we analyse intra- and interspecific patterns of mitochondrial variation in two distantly related groups of amphibians, mantellid frogs and salamanders, to determine the promise of DNA barcoding with cytochrome oxidase subunit I (cox1) sequences in this taxon. High intraspecific cox1 divergences of 7-14% were observed (18% in one case) within the whole set of amphibian sequences analysed. These high values are not caused by particularly high substitution rates of this gene but by generally deep mitochondrial divergences within and among amphibian species. Despite these high divergences, cox1 sequences were able to correctly identify species including disparate geographic variants. The main problems with cox1 barcoding of amphibians are (i) the high variability of priming sites that hinder the application of universal primers to all species and (ii) the observed distinct overlap of intraspecific and interspecific divergence values, which implies difficulties in the definition of threshold values to identify candidate species. Common discordances between geographical signatures of mitochondrial and nuclear markers in amphibians indicate that a single-locus approach can be problematic when high accuracy of DNA barcoding is required. We suggest that a number of mitochondrial and nuclear genes may be used as DNA barcoding markers to complement cox1.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Zool Res

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Zool Res

Title: Zoological Research

Publisher: Science Press (16 Donghuangchenggen Beijie, Beijing 100717, China )

ISSN (Print): 2095-8137

Publication date (Electronic): 28 April 2018

Publication date (Print): 18 May 2018

Volume: 39

Issue: 3

Pages: 130-157

Affiliations

[1 ]Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Biological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119234, Russia

[2 ]Joint Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Research and Technological Center, Nghia Do, Cau Giay, Hanoi, Vietnam

[3 ]Division of Fishery, School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Phayao, Phayao 56000, Thailand

[4 ]Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand

[5 ]Vietnam National Museum of Nature, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam

[6 ]Petroleum Geology Department, Geological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow 119234, Russia

[7 ]State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming Yunnan 650223, China

[8 ]Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yezin Nay Pyi Taw 05282, Myanmar

Author notes

[* ]Corresponding author, E-mail: n.poyarkov@ 123456gmail.com

Article

Publisher ID: ZoolRes-39-3-130

DOI: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2018.019

PMC ID: 5968859

PubMed ID: 29683109

SO-VID: 2452de47-55be-4cee-b880-c2c615d4b14e

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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 30 January 2018

Date accepted : 03 March 2018

Funding

This work was supported by the programs of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31501843, 31622052), Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (Y4ZK111B01: 2017CASSEABRIQG002), Animal Branch of the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, CAS (Large Research Infrastructure Funding), and Thailand Research Fund (TRF) (DBG6180001). Molecular experiments, phylogenetic analyses, specimen storage, examination and microCT-analysis were carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation (RSF 14-50-00029)

A new genus and three new species of miniaturized microhylid frogs from Indochina (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae: Asterophryinae)

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Abstract

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Most cited references 63

Vast underestimation of Madagascar's biodiversity evidenced by an integrative amphibian inventory.

TREEFINDER: a powerful graphical analysis environment for molecular phylogenetics

Deciphering amphibian diversity through DNA barcoding: chances and challenges.

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