Phylogenetic Relationships of Brown Frogs with 24 Chromosomes from Far East Russia and Hokkaido Assessed by Mitochondrial CytochromebGene Sequences (Rana: Ranidae)

Abstract

Comparisons of nucleotide sequences of mitochondrial cytochrome b gene revealed that the brown frog from Sakhalin has genetically little differentiated from Rana pirica from Hokkaido. Although they show some differences in adult morphology, they are considered to be conspecific. These frogs have sequences substantially different from R. dybowskii from the Maritime territory of Russia, and the current taxonomic idea to specifically separate them is genetically supported. On the other hand, R. dybowskii from the Maritime territory is genetically well differentiated from a conspecific population from Tsushima.

Allozyme Variation among Populations of Rana pirica (Amphibia: Anura)

“…Highton 2000). In this way, our result conformed to Tanaka‐Ueno et al (1998), who studied the brown frogs using mitochondrial DNA and concluded that R. pirica from Hokkaido and the population of brown frog with 24 chromosomes from Sakhalin were conspecific. As to the subspecific status of these populations, further genetical studies within Sakhalin, as well as morphological studies within each island, are required to draw a definite conclusion.…”

“…As to the subspecific status of these populations, further genetical studies within Sakhalin, as well as morphological studies within each island, are required to draw a definite conclusion. Such studies will also surely contribute to clarify reasons of discordance between results of morphological (Matsui et al 1994) and genetical (Tanaka‐Ueno et al 1998; the present result) studies.…”

“…Finally, from an extensive study of morphological and genetic characteristics, the population from Hokkaido was recognized as a distinct species, R. pirica , endemic to that island (Matsui 1991). More recently, Tanaka‐Ueno et al (1998) performed mitochondrial DNA analysis and concluded that the brown frog from Sakhalin should also be identified as R. pirica .…”

“…Although R. pirica is considered to be widely distributed in Hokkaido (Matsui 1991) and Sakhalin (Tanaka‐Ueno et al 1998; Maeda and Matsui 1999), but not in Honshu, a fossil identified as R. pirica has been found from Aomori, northernmost Honshu (Hasegawa et al 1988) suggesting its wider distribution in the past.…”

Authentication of Oviductus Ranae and Its Original Animals Using Molecular Marker.

“…4) Based on the analysis of DNA sequence data of human, 6) Xenopus laevis 7) and some Ranid frogs, [8][9][10][11] a pair of universal primers L14847 (5Ј-ACATCTCAGCATGATGAAACTT-CGG-3Ј) and H15230 (5Ј-TACTGAGAAGCCCCCTCAAA-TTCATTG-3Ј) was designed for amplifying Cyt b gene fragment from all frogs mentioned above in the present study. A total of 30 ml of PCR reaction mixture was composed of 10ϫbuffer 3 ml, 25 mmol/l Mg 2ϩ 2 ml, 2 mmol/l dNTPs 2 ml, 10 pmol/ ml of each universal primer 1 ml, 1 unit of Taq DNA polymerase (Promega), 10 mg/ml BSA 0.2 ml, and template DNA 10-100 ng.…”