Differentiation of Rana limnocharis and Two Allied Species Elucidated by Electrophoretic Analyses

The genetic relationships among six populations of Rana limnocharis distributed in Japan and Taiwan, two populations of R. cancrivora distributed in Philippine and Thailand and one population of Platymantis papuensis distributed in New Guinea were examined by electrophoretic analyses of 17 enzymes and two blood proteins extracted from 97 frogs. These enzymes and blood proteins were controlled by genes at 29 loci, where 3.9 alleles produced 4.6 phenotypes on the average. The genetic relationships among the nine populations were examined by estimating the genetic distance according to the method of NEI (1975). The phylogenetic relationships were shown by a dendrogram drawn by the UPGMA clustering method. It was found that Platymantis papuensis first diverged from the others, and then Rana cancrivora and Rana limnocharis were differentiated from each other. In Rana limnocharis, the Iriomote population seems to have first diverged from all the other populations