Speciation and historical invasions of the Asian black-spined toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus)

Dufresnes, Christophe; Jablonski, Daniel; Ambu, Johanna; Prasad, Vishal Kumar; Bala Gautam, Kumudani; Kamei, Rachunliu G.; Mahony, Stephen; Hofmann, Sylvia; Masroor, Rafaqat; Alard, Bérénice; Crottini, Angelica; Edmonds, Devin; Ohler, Annemarie; Jiang, Jianping; Khatiwada, Janak R.; Gupta, Sandeep Kumar; Borzée, Amaël; Borkin, Leo J.; Skorinov, Dmitriy V.; Melnikov, Daniel A.; Milto, Konstantin D.; Konstantinov, Evgeny L.; Künzel, Sven; Suchan, Tomasz; Arkhipov, Dmitriy V.; Trofimets, Alexei V.; Nguyen, Tan Van; Suwannapoom, Chatmongkon; Litvinchuk, Spartak N.; Poyarkov, Nikolay A.

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-54933-4

Animaltranslocationsprovidestrikingexamplesofthehumanfootprinton biodiversity.Combiningcontinental-widegenomicandDNA-barcodinganalyses, we reconstructedthehistoricalbiogeographyoftheAsianblack-spinedtoad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus), atoxiccommensalamphibianthatcurrently threatens twobiodiversityhotspotsthrough biologicalinvasions(Wallaceaand Madagascar).Theresultsemphasizeacomplexdiversificationshapedbyspe- ciationandmitochondrialintrogressionthatcomprisestwodistinctspecies.One species(true D. melanostictus) isdistributedintheIndiansubcontinentandis invasiveinWallacea.Theotherspecies,whosenomenclatureremainsunsettled, diverged from D. melanostictus in theMioceneera(~7Mya)anddiversified across Southeast Asia,fromwhereitwasintroducedtoMadagascar.Remarkably,the Indonesian populationof D. melanostictus was recentlyestablishedfromIndia, which suggestshistorical,possiblyhuman-assisteddispersalacrosstheBayof Bengal, reflecting thecenturies-oldconnectionbetweentheseregions.

Speciation and historical invasions of the Asian black-spined toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) / Dufresnes, C., Jablonski, D., Ambu, J., Prasad, V.K., Bala Gautam, K., Kamei, R.G., Mahony, S., Hofmann, S., Masroor, R., Alard, B., Crottini, A., Edmonds, D., Ohler, A., Jiang, J., Khatiwada, J.R., Gupta, S.K., Borzée, A., Borkin, L.J., Skorinov, D.V., Melnikov, D.A., et al.. - In: NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. - ISSN 2041-1723. - ELETTRONICO. - 16:(2025), pp. 298.1-298.14. [10.1038/s41467-024-54933-4]