Phylogenetic relationships among phrynosomatid lizards as inferred from mitochondrial ribosomal DNA sequences: substitutional bias and information content of transitions relative to transversions.

The phylogenetic relationships among 40 species, representing all genera, within the North American lizard family Phrynosomatidae were inferred from mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene sequences. Cladistic analysis of the DNA sequence data (779 bp; 162 informative characters) supported the monophyly of the sand lizards (Callisaurus, Cophosaurus, Holbrookia, and Uma), Petrosaurus, Phrynosoma, Urosaurus, and Uta. All the species of Sceloporus, except S. variabilis and S. chrysostictus, formed a clade. Except for a sand lizard + Phrynosoma clade, the intergeneric relationships inferred from the mtDNA were largely incongruent with recent cladistic analyses based on morphology. Sceloporus group monophyly was not supported, with Petrosaurus being a member of a clade containing Sator, Sceloporus, and Urosaurus, to the exclusion of Uta. The phylogenetic placement of Uta was ambiguous. The substitutional bias in the phrynosomatid mitochondrial rDNA sequences was examined, as well as the phylogenetic information content of transitions relative to transversions. There appeared to be a lower transition bias than observed in other vertebrate sequences, with some classes of transversions occurring as frequently as G <-> A transitions. Transitions were no less informative for phylogeny reconstruction than transversions. Therefore, transitions should not be down-weighted in phylogenetic analysis, as is often done.