Genetic diversity among different species of the genus Leiurus (Scorpiones: Buthidae) in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East

Abstract

The molecular phylogenetic relationship among two species of genus Leiurus, from Saudi Arabia with additional comparative sequence data available from Egypt, Oman and Turkey is presented. The molecular phylogeny was performed using maximum parsimony, neighbor joining and bayesian inference. Our results indicate a clear deep splitting between the Western clade, which represented by L. quinuestriatus sequences from Egypt and those from the Eastern clade which encompassing different Leiurus species from Saudi Arabia, Oman and Turkey was shown. Also, the phylogenetic relationship represents additional support for the taxonomic status of Arabian Leiurus species.

Keywords: Buthidae; Leiurus; Phylogenetic; Saudi Arabia; Scorpiones.

Fig. 1

Collection localiteis of Leiurus samples from Saudi Arabia and Gene Bank samples previously used in phylogenetic analysis that are given in Table 1.

Fig. 2

MP phylogenetic tree of genus Leiurus mtDNA sequences fragment of the 16S rRNA gene from Saudi Arabia, Egypt including Sinai, Oman and Turkey. Number above branches indicate bootstrap values calculated with 1000 replicates.

Fig. 3

NJ phylogenetic tree of genus Leiurus mtDNA sequences fragment of the 16S rRNA gene from Saudi Arabia, Egypt including Sinai, Oman and Turkey. Number above branches indicate distance values.

Fig. 4

BI tree phylogenetic tree of genus Leiurus mtDNA sequences fragment of the 16S rRNA gene from Saudi Arabia, Egypt including Sinai, Oman and Turkey. (50% majority rule consensus tree). Numbers above nodes indicate the posterior probabilities.