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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">102</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="index">urn:lsid:arphahub.com:pub:73abe0ce-d97c-5d7c-bee5-b8e6e6fe6a17</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title xml:lang="en">ARPHA Preprints</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title xml:lang="en">preprints</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Pensoft Publishers</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.3897/arphapreprints.e89174</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">89174</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Research Article</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="biological_taxon">
          <subject>Elapidae</subject>
          <subject>Reptilia</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="scientific_subject">
          <subject>Bioinformatics</subject>
          <subject>Evolutionary biology</subject>
          <subject>Genetics</subject>
          <subject>Systematics</subject>
          <subject>Zoology &amp; Animal Biology</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="geographical_area">
          <subject>Asia</subject>
          <subject>Middle East</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Molecular phylogeny of <italic>Walterinnesia aegyptia</italic> (Reptilia, Elapidae) isolated from Ha’il Province, Saudi Arabia</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group content-type="authors">
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Alshammari</surname>
            <given-names>Ahmed</given-names>
          </name>
          <uri content-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2926-0861</uri>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A1">1</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Badry</surname>
            <given-names>Ahmed</given-names>
          </name>
          <email xlink:type="simple">ahmedbadry@azhar.edu.eg</email>
          <uri content-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2610-2019</uri>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>El-Abd</surname>
            <given-names>Eman</given-names>
          </name>
          <uri content-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1195-7700</uri>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A2">2</xref>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="no">
          <name name-style="western">
            <surname>Hamad Aloufi</surname>
            <given-names>Bander</given-names>
          </name>
          <uri content-type="orcid">https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3387-9034</uri>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="A3">3</xref>
        </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <aff id="A1">
        <label>1</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">University of Ha'il, Ha'il, Saudi Arabia</addr-line>
        <institution>University of Ha'il</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Ha'il</addr-line>
        <country>Saudi Arabia</country>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A2">
        <label>2</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Head of the Department of Radiation Sciences, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt., Alexandria, Egypt</addr-line>
        <institution>Head of the Department of Radiation Sciences, Medical Research Institute, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Alexandria</addr-line>
        <country>Egypt</country>
      </aff>
      <aff id="A3">
        <label>3</label>
        <addr-line content-type="verbatim">Biology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Ha’il, P.O. Box 2440, Ha’il 81451, Saudi Arabia., Hail, Saudi Arabia</addr-line>
        <institution>Biology Department, Faculty of Science, University of Ha’il, P.O. Box 2440, Ha’il 81451, Saudi Arabia.</institution>
        <addr-line content-type="city">Hail</addr-line>
        <country>Saudi Arabia</country>
      </aff>
      <author-notes>
        <fn fn-type="corresp">
          <p>Corresponding author: Ahmed Badry (<email xlink:type="simple">ahmedbadry@azhar.edu.eg</email>).</p>
        </fn>
        <fn fn-type="edited-by">
          <p>Academic editor: </p>
        </fn>
      </author-notes>
      <pub-date pub-type="collection">
        <year>2022</year>
      </pub-date>
      <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>21</day>
        <month>06</month>
        <year>2022</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>3</volume>
      <uri content-type="arpha" xlink:href="http://openbiodiv.net/FDF1D0E2-7152-542B-9BB3-01662C7FE903">FDF1D0E2-7152-542B-9BB3-01662C7FE903</uri>
      <history>
        <date date-type="received">
          <day>16</day>
          <month>06</month>
          <year>2022</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="accepted">
          <day>16</day>
          <month>06</month>
          <year>2022</year>
        </date>
      </history>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Ahmed Alshammari, Ahmed Badry, Eman El-Abd, Bander Hamad Aloufi</copyright-statement>
        <license license-type="creative-commons-attribution" xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" xlink:type="simple">
          <license-p>This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <label>Abstract</label>
        <p><italic>Walterinnesia aegyptia</italic> is one of the most venomous snakes belonging to the family Elapidae found in the Middle East and Africa. In addition to its ecological importance, it is accused of millions of deaths due to snakebites. Because molecular identification of snakes is crucial for the antivenom drug industry, mitochondrial genes are used to identify, characterize, and infer genetic diversity among different venomous snake species. Data of <italic>Walterinnesia</italic> collected from samples across Saudi Arabia were compared based on the mitochondrial 16S and 12S rRNA sequences with other congeners to assess the phylogenetic relationship. The phylogenetic analysis strongly supports the monophyly of the genus <italic>Walterinnesia</italic> based on two genes that represent different species of Elapidae. In addition, a close relationship between <italic>Walterinnesia aegyptia </italic>and<italic> W. morgani </italic>was found. Our molecular data showed that <italic>W. morgani</italic> from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is nearly genetically identical (D=0) with <italic>W. aegyptia</italic> from Ha`il and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Sinai, Egypt. Further study is required based on more material and detailed morphological and genetic analysis.</p>
      </abstract>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>
