New records and geographic distribution of the sympatric zones of unisexual and bisexual rock lizards of the genus Darevskia in Armenia and adjacent territories

Abstract

Caucasian rock lizards of the genus is a unique taxa, including both bisexual and parthenogenetic species. The parthenogenetic species have originated as a result of natural hybridisation between females and males of different bisexual species. The species involved in interspecific hybridisation are called parental. However, sympatric zones (SZ) of unisexual and bisexual rock lizards of the Caucasus are still poorly studied, although they are very important for understanding the role of hybrid individuals of different origin in reticulate evolution. This paper presents the location of the SZs of parthenogenetic and their parental bisexual rock lizards of the genus Darevskia in Armenia and adjacent territories of Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh. We summarised the locations of the SZs identified from 1957 to the present, based on our field survey data gathered in 2018-2019 and records from publications and museum collections. This dataset includes 39 SZs of three types: SZ of parental bisexual species, SZ of parental species with unisexual species and SZ of the parthenogenetic species. For each zone, species composition, geographical and altitudinal distribution are presented. New records expand our knowledge of the geographical and altitudinal distribution of SZs in these species and provide additional data for understanding the mechanisms of reticulate evolution and hybridogeneous speciation in the past, present and future. The new records, including geographical and altitudinal distributions of three types of SZs, are presented, which expand the previously-known list to 39 locations of contact zones for parthenogenetic and its bisexual parental species of rock lizards of the genus Darevskia in Armenia and the adjacent territories of Georgia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Meiotic synapsis of homeologous chromosomes and mismatch repair protein detection in the parthenogenetic rock lizard Darevskia unisexualis

“…We assumed D. unisexualis found in different geographically isolated populations would be a perfect subject to study. Discovery of a new population of D. unisexualis with an unusual karyotype took place near Keti village, Armenia in 2019 (Petrosyan et al, 2020). Here for the first time, we successfully studied somatic karyotypes, as well as meiotic chromosome behaviour, and additionally with the key marker of late recombination events, the MLH1 protein, in parthenogenetic species D. unisexualis from a new population, possessing an odd number of chromosomes 2n = 37.…”

New records of the rock lizards of the genus Darevskia Arribas, 1999 (Sauria: Lacertidae) in the Caucasus. Communication 2

“…Подходящие местообитания вида в Армении разделены на семь изолированных участков в диапазоне высот 700-1500 м н.у.м. в высокогорной лесной, луговой и степной зонах (Arakelyan et al 2011;Petrosyan et al 2020). Указание на обитание вида в пределах западного Азербайджана (Petrosyan et al 2020) ошибочно.…”

“…в высокогорной лесной, луговой и степной зонах (Arakelyan et al 2011;Petrosyan et al 2020). Указание на обитание вида в пределах западного Азербайджана (Petrosyan et al 2020) ошибочно.…”

Genetic Variability and the Potential Range of Darevskia rostombekowi in Transcaucasia

“…There are fragmentary data on the distribution of isolated populations of D. rostombekowi in Armenia. It is known that the D. rostombekowi lizard (one of seven parthenogeneticspecies of Darevskia rock lizards) occupies a relatively small range consisting of several isolated populations of different sizes within Northern Armenia, adjacent regions of Northwest Azerbaijan, and a small alpine relict (~12000 years) population (detached from the main range) on the southeastern coast of Lake Sevan (MacCulloch et al, 1997;Martirosyan et al, 2002;Arakelyan et al, 2011, Petrosyan et al, 2020a. The boundaries of the range of the species , as well as of isolated populations, are absent in the literature.…”