Distribution of mitochondrial haplotypes (cytb) in Polish populations of Emys orbicularis (L., 1758)

Abstract

The European pond turtle, Emys orbicularis, inhabits a wide distribution area in the western Palaearctic. Polish populations of pond turtle represent the nominotypical subspecies Emys orbicularis orbicularis. The mitochondrial DNA haplotype (cytb gene) variation among 131 turtles from 26 locations in five regions of Poland was investigated. Five haplotypes belonging to three distinct lineages were identified. Two clades (I and II) were represented by two haplotypes each, while the other clade (IV) was represented by one haplotype. Three haplotypes were reported for the first time in E. orbicularis. The eastern part of Poland is inhabited exclusively by turtles bearing haplotype Ia. The remaining four sequence variants were recorded in western Poland where only the IIb haplotype is considered endemic. The distribution of the other haplotypes in western Poland could thus reflect past introductions or accidental releases. The authors regarded the two locations (Drzeczkowo and Karpicko) that were first included in the western Poland populations as autochthonous catchment areas of haplotype Ia.

Population differentiation of the European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) in Poland inferred by the analysis of mitochondrial and microsatellite DNA: implications for conservation

“…The parsimony network analysis (fig. 2) revealed 5 different haplotypes in Polish populations: haplotypes Ia and IIb, as named by Lenk et al (1999), and haplotypes Iy, IIn, and IVl, as labelled by Prusak et al (2011). Haplotype IVl remained unconnected with the other haplotypes; the other haplotypes differed by a maximum of nine mutational steps.…”

“…The primers used for amplification of the entire cytochrome b gene were Gludge (Palumbi et al, 1991), CytbJSr (Spinks et al, 2004), cytb2L and cytb2H (Prusak et al, 2011). PCR and sequencing are described in detail by Prusak et al (2011).…”

“…PCR and sequencing are described in detail by Prusak et al (2011). Our data included sequences generated for a previous paper (Prusak et al, 2011) as well as 15 new ones. Sequences of all identified haplotypes were deposited in GenBank (HQ681916-HQ681920).…”

“…Cytochrome b sequences previously published by Prusak et al (2011) as well as 15 new sequences from Polish populations obtained in this study (EP -6, NEP -4, CP -2; WP -3) were used to examine relationships among haplotypes. The mtDNA sequences were aligned using MEGA v. 5.02 (Tamura et al, 2011) and overall mean sequence diversity was estimated with the same software.…”

“…Active conservation measures have been conducted for pond turtles for more than twenty years in Poland (Mitrus, 2000;Maciantowicz and Najbar, 2004), but this has excluded any insight into the genetic constitution of the local populations. The first results on the genetics of Polish pond turtles were published in 2011 (Prusak et al, 2011), but they permitted only the determination of maternal lineages based on mtDNA variation. In the present study, we extended the analyses to microsatellite markers and compared mitochondrial and microsatellite data.…”