Genetic Variations In Spiders:A Molecularphylogenetic Approach

The book presents the first molecular study on the oxyopids from Karnataka, India. Through this work a hypothetical species tree is generated using six species from Oxyopidae family integrating morphometric keys with three different molecular markers in delineating the species. The species tree generated using morphological keys and phylogenetic tree generated by RAPD markers were non identical but displayed similarity and this tree was contradicted by the findings of COI and ITS markers generated phylogenetic tree. These study suggest that with morphological keys it is essential to use molecular markers in deleniating closely related species. Further, population analysis revealed that there was no correlation between genetic distance and geographical distance with respect to all the markers used. From the regression analysis it was noted that the relative consesus sequences of both ITS and COI markers generated from this can be effectively used in future molecular studies involving all species of spiders in general, Oxyopids in particular. This book presents molecular methods that are useful in the study of molecular evolution. This book serves as reference material for research