Analisi preliminari sulla divergenza genetica e filogeografia delle popolazioni italiane della testuggine palustre europea Emys orbicularis

The evolutionary history of the European pond turtle Emys orbicularis has been so far described across Europe and only recently fine-scale phylogenetic studies have been conducted on a few Italian sites. The aim of this study is to reconstruct patterns of dispersal and colonization of E. orbicularis in Italy following the last glacial period and characterize levels of genetic divergence among the main Italian natural populations. Preliminary analyses based on comparison of mitochondrial DNA control region sequences for 11 sampling sites in Italy recovered a pattern of relatively high haplotypic diversity in the southern regions, typical of glacial refugia, and a relatively lower levels of variation recorded in the central and northern sampling sites. Significant differences in haplotype frequency and distribution was also recorded along the Apennines between western and eastern populations corroborating the current taxonomic distinction between E. orbicularis galloitalica and E. orbicularis hellenica, respectively. Strong differentiation was also recorded for Sicilian pond turtles, recently assigned to E. trinacris. Our study also aims at providing a database on the genetic structure of Italian Emys natural populations which can be used to assess origin of captive individuals for reintroduction.