Morphometrical And Genetic Differentiation Of Generalized Odorrana Schmackeri

Odorrana schmackeri (Boettger, 1892) belongs to Odorrana of Raninae, an endemic species to China, distributed more widely, and the geographical environment was complex. Different populations existed significant differences on the morphological characteristics, and genetic relationships among populations was not clear, therefore, we studyed morphological and genetic differentiation of Odorrana schmackeri on classification and phylogenesis.1. Morphological analysiswe measured and compared 18 morphological characteristics of 477 specimens in 15 populations of 11 provinces. Analysised sexual dimorphism on Wushan population, and typical discriminant analysis and cluster analysis on the correction value for each character. The results showed that:①There were significant differences in Wushan male and female population groups in the head length, head width, snout length et al, (P<0.05), so the variables analysis of male and female groups must be analyzed separately;②The results of cluster analysis wre consistent in both male and female group, 17 characteristics clustered into four branchs;③Seventy percentage or more cases were classified correctly in most of population. Classification effect was better, male and female groups was classified higher in the top three-axis. Some morphological differences existed among 15 geographic populations, which could be grouped into three types.2. Genetic differentiationwe measured 118 samples of mitochondrial 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA gene fragments in 15 populations, a total of 1804 bp. Sequences analysis combined with 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA gene showed that:①Populations of Odorrana schmackeri had high genetic diversity, widespread distribution and large population counts made it had more number of haplotypes (37) and a high level of nucleotide diversity (0.834±0.023), including 5 shared haplotypes: H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5. Genetic distances among haplotypes were between 0.000 ~ 0.115. Genetic diversity was higher in the south of the distribution than the north, appeared the roughly situation : "the South than in the north". In the total variance of genetic variation, there were 79.01% of the variation among groups, the 20.99% of the variation among populations within groups, it showed that there were significant genetic differentiation among populations;②MP, BI and ML tree constructed by 37 haplotypes had the same main topologyical structer in phylogenesis, divided into branch A and B, two monophyletic groups were formed respectively. The mismatch analysis of branch A1, A2 and B1 showed that they did not happen population expansion in the near future, branch B2 occurred population expansion recently. Haplotype network structure and analysis of molecular variance also supported the phylogenesis.③Tajima's D is negative, indicating that populations experienced a population expansion process. Odorrana schmackeri might choose the southwest plateau region and the relatively warm eastern as an ideal refuge during glaciation, spread in the interglacial periods, formed the current distribution pattern.