MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETICS OF THE ITALIAN PODARCIS LIZARDS (REPTILIA, LACERTIDAE)

Phylogenetic relationships within the Italian species of the lacertid genus Podarcis were examined by parsimony analysis of mitochondrial DN A sequences from the genes encoding the small ribosomal RNA and the ph enyl transfer RNA. Lacerta viridis was used as outgroup and Teira duge sii was also included in the ingroup. The 80 phylogenetically informat ive positions produced four most parsimonious trees, with the Italian Podarcis split into three groups: the first comprised P. filfolensis, P. melisellensis. P. wagleriana, P. muralis, and P. raffonei, the seco nd P. sicula with its various subspecies. The third lineage was that o f P. tiliguerta, whose relationships were resolved as more closely rel ated to the first clade, when weighting transversion three times trans itions. Bootstrap analyses on a subset of sequences representing ail s pecies herein studied, supported the results from the larger dataset. The present results are only partly in agreement with previous hypothe ses based on morphology, immunology, and allozyme variation analyses.