As a population geneticist who works on invasive species I have to say I was less than impressed when I read this manuscript. I have serious issues with the markers used and the sampling design. By multiple populations, they mean samples from the ever glades, a small number of samples from a region of their native range, and one or two pet shop pythons. They are more related to each other than to those from a wild population, however, there is no comment regarding the collection orgin in the wild of were pythons in captivity have originated over the years. To my knowledge, over the years they have come from multiple locations. If this is true, then the pythons in the Everglades, based on their results, are derived from a small number of indivuals from one of these location. A more thorough genetic study involving a more solid sampling regime, and species specific markers, is required to clarrify this.



Warren
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Dr Warren Booth

North Carolina State University

Department of Entomology



USARK Director

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