Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii) in the Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka bears signatures of incipient genetic divergence from the South Indian population

Abstract

The Russell’s viper (Daboia russelii) is a medically important viper found in South Asia, including Sri Lanka. This study focused on the phylogeny of Russell’s vipers in the geographically segregated coastal peninsula of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The study aimed to find out whether the specimens collected in Jaffna are different from previously reported forms since such an investigation has not been carried out so far specifically in this area, and to find out whether geographical segregation has had an impact on it. We obtained mtDNA sequences of samples representing six geographical locations in the Jaffna peninsula for the mitochondrial protein-coding genes Cytb(576bp) and ND2(270bp). Our molecular analyses recovered two distinct clades: D. russelii and D. siamensis. The clade of D. russelii comprises two sister lineages, Pakistan and India/Sri Lanka. The uncorrected pairwise Cytb genetic distance between the species range from 5.0 to 14.5 percent. The current study confirms a sister group relationship between the Indian/Sri Lankan lineage and the Pakistani lineage of the Russell’s viper (D. russelii). Additionally, it discloses the presence of an incipient genetic divergence between Russell’s viper populations in Jaffna and South India.