Meeting Abstract

P1.144  Jan. 4  Phylogeography of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica): mtDNA cytochrome b sequences indicate a deep East-West division IRWIN, Jason T.*; FRY, Joseph B.; COX, Stanley H.; WAGNER, R. Steven; GREEN, David M.; Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA; Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA; Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA; Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA; Redpath Museum, McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada irwinj@cwu.edu

Historical morphological studies of the wood frog (Rana sylvatica) divided the species into several morphotypes. To examine the validity of the morphotypes and to understand the evolutionary history of this broadly distributed frog, we performed a phylogenetic analysis of the species across its range. Wood frogs were sampled across their very extensive distribution from South Carolina to Ontario (Canada) and across to western Canada and Alaska, as well as relict populations in Arkansas and the Rocky Mountains. A region of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene was sequenced and used to construct phylogenetic trees to investigate population relationships. Phylogenetic analyses indicate a deep division between populations in eastern North America (South Carolina to Quebec) and those in the West (Colorado, and northward to Alaska). A relict population in Arkansas contained representative of both of the two lineages. There was little sequence variation within the two major lineages, suggesting a rapid recolonization following glaciation.