[Evolutionary relationships between reptiles inferred from the comparison of their ITS2 sequences].

The reptile phylogeny is poorly studied, and many existing hypotheses are controversial. In this study, the ITS2 regions of 43 species of lizards, snakes, turtles, and crocodiles were cloned and sequenced in addition to eight ITS2 sequences of amphibians, reptiles, and birds already present in the database. The ITS2 of reptiles, similarly to other vertebrates, contain short conserved (consensus) regions, alternating with variable regions (DI, DII, and DIII), which are potentially capable of forming stable secondary structures.