Genetic survey of polymorphic populations of Podarcis muralis (Sauria: Lacertidae) using molecular markers

Color polymorphisms are widespread in nature and may show a high variability not only within the same population, but also among populations of the same species., Color polymorphism is a common feature among reptiles and is often linked to evolution of alternative strategies. Alternative and discrete color morphs have been reported in the common wall lizard, Podarcis muralis, which show six different ventral colorations in both sexes: three pure phenotypes (i.e., white, yellow and red) and three intermediate phenotypes (i.e., white-yellow, white-red and yellow-red). The relative frequencies of color morphs show micro- geographic variations at local scale, which could be related to gene flow reduction among populations. Therefore, in this work I studied genetic polymorphism by using molecular markers in order to assess gene flow and dispersal among populations of common wall lizard, with the aim to describe the geographic structure of polymorphic populations at local scale. Moreover, nuclear markers were used to investigate the presence of genetic divergence among sympatric color morphs of common wall lizard.