| artificial warming facilitates growth but not survival of plateau frog (rana kukunoris) tadpoles in presence of gape-limited predatory beetles. | global warming has been frequently demonstrated to increase growth rate in larval amphibians that have considerable phenotypic plasticity; this may lead to an increase in larval survival because large larvae are less likely to be captured by gape-limited predators. this study is to test whether warming could improve tadpole growth and thereby enhance the tadpole survival in plateau frog rana kukunoris. | 2014 | 24905846 |
| molecular convergent evolution of the mybpc2 gene among three high-elevation amphibian species. | we report a strong pattern of molecular-level convergent/parallel evolution of the mybpc2 gene. three high-elevation amphibian species, bufo gargarizans minshanicus, nanorana pleskei, rana kukunoris, revealed remarkable numbers of convergent and parallel amino acid substitutions. on the mybpc2 gene tree of eleven anurans, the three distantly related species formed a strongly supported clade that was away from their respective relatives. furthermore, we generated both model-based and empirical da ... | 2017 | 28220195 |
| genetic signals of high-altitude adaptation in amphibians: a comparative transcriptome analysis. | high-altitude adaptation provides an excellent system for studying how organisms cope with multiple environmental stressors and interacting genetic modifications. to explore the genetic basis of high-altitude adaptation in poikilothermic animals, we acquired transcriptome sequences from a high-altitude population and a low-altitude population of the asiatic toad (bufo gargarizans). transcriptome data from another high-altitude amphibian, rana kukunoris and its low-altitude relative r. chensiensi ... | 2016 | 27716028 |
| hybridization and mitochondrial genome introgression between rana chensinensis and r. kukunoris. | mitochondrial genome (mito-genome) introgression among metazoans is commonplace, and several biological processes may promote such introgression. we examined two proposed processes for the mito-genome introgression between rana chensinensis and r. kukunoris: natural hybridization and sex-biased dispersal. we sampled 477 individuals from 28 sites in the potential hybrid zone in the western tsinling mountains. mitochondrial gene (cyt-b) trees were used to examine the introgression events. microsat ... | 2014 | 25308955 |
| speciation in the rana chensinensis species complex and its relationship to the uplift of the qinghai-tibetan plateau. | speciation remains a fundamental issue in biology. herein, we report an investigation into speciation in the rana chensinensis species complex using dna sequence data from one mitochondrial and five nuclear genes. a phylogenetic analysis of the data revealed four major clades in the complex, and each of them was found to likely represent a species, including one cryptic species. ecological niche models were generated from 19 climatic variables for three of the four major clades, which were repre ... | 2012 | 22221323 |
| microsatellite dna markers for the chinese wood frog (rana chensinensis) and tests for their cross-utility in 15 ranid frog species. | we developed 22 microsatellite markers for the chinese wood frog (rana chensinensis) to study the impact of landscape features on its population structure. thirty-four individuals from one breeding site were examined and 14 loci were polymorphic. the number of alleles, expected heterozygosity and observed heterozygosity varied from two to 14, from 0.0833 to 0.9118, and from 0.1376 to 0.8667, respectively. cross-species amplification was tested for 15 ranid frog species. the plateau brown frog, r ... | 2008 | 21585991 |
| maternal investment increases with altitude in a frog on the tibetan plateau. | reproducing females can allocate energy between the production of eggs or offspring of different size or number, both of which can strongly influence fitness. the physical capacity to store developing offspring imposes constraints on maximum clutch volume, but individual females and populations can trade off whether more or fewer eggs or offspring are produced, and their relative sizes. harsh environments are likely to select for larger egg or offspring size, and many vertebrate populations comp ... | 2013 | 24200096 |
| river islands, refugia and genetic structuring in the endemic brown frog rana kukunoris (anura, ranidae) of the qinghai-tibetan plateau. | frequently, pleistocene climatic cycling has been found to be the diver of genetic structuring in populations, even in areas that did not have continental ice sheets, such as on the qinghai-tibetan plateau (qtp). typically, species distributed on the plateau have been hypothesized to re-treat to south-eastern refugia, especially during the last glacial maximum (lgm). we evaluated sequence variation in the mitochondrial dna gene cytb and the nuclear dna gene rag-1 in rana kukunoris, a species end ... | 2013 | 23116243 |