Molecular study of the Iranian gecko, (Sauria:Gekkonidae) using mitochondrial COI region

The family Gekkonidae is one of the largest families of squamata reptiles that encompass more than 1217 species which include 12 genus and 40 species as the largest lizard family in Iran [3,4]. In this study, phylogeny of the Iranian gecko was examined using 295 sequences of Gekkonidae species of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 and four sequences of Eublepharis as outgroup which were extracted from Barcode of life data system (BOLD) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). Then, phylogenetic analyses were constructed using maximum parsimony (MP) and neighbor joining (NJ) methods. Our findings suggest that almost all species and some genera are separated with strong support. Results show that genus Tropiocolotes forms a relatively well supported clade in the basal clade near the root. Tropiocolotes clade is a sister taxon of clade of Microgecko+ Mediodactylus+ Agamora persica and support strongly its monophyly. Some specimens with tag of Tropiocolotes sp. have been included in the late clade but they certainly misidentification because of morphological resemblances. Consequently, the topography of phylogenetic tree is similar to those of former molecular and morphological researches [1, 2]. Eventually, results suggest molecular marker COI is efficient for differentiation closely related species

Keywords:

Gekkonidae , phylogeny , mitochondrial gene , misidentification