Hirotami T. Imai

Karyotype evolution in Australian ants

Abstract105 Australian ant species, including members of the important primitive genera Amblyopone and Myrmecia, were karyotyped using a C-banding air-drying technique. The observed haploid numbers in this survey ranged from 2n=84 (the highest known in the Hymenoptera) to 2n=9. Seven types of chromosome rearrangement were detected, namely: Robertsonian rearrangements, pericentric inversions, saltatory changes in constitutive heterochromatin, simple reciprocal translocations, complex translocations accompanied by significant loss of euchromatin, supernumerary (B-) chromosome variation, and chromosome deletion. Most ant karyotype evolution is explicable in terms of the first three of these. No evidence was found for polyploidy or centric dissociation being of evolutionary significance in ants. The C-band analysis supports a model in which pericentric inversions converting acrocentrics to other types greatly predominate over those with reverse effects. There appears to be little, if any, correlation between whether a species is morphologically primitive or advanced and its karyotype organization. The data provide little support for the ancestral chromosome number in ants having been high with subsequent reduction (“fusion hypothesis”), but rather suggest that the ancestral number was either very low with subsequent increase (“fission hypothesis”) or coincident with the present mode (“modal hypothesis”). Moreover, for these ant data, the modal hypothesis is interpretable as a subset of the fission hypothesis.

Cytological evidence for holocentric chromosomes of the silkworms, Bombyx mori and B. mandarina, (Bombycidae, Lepidoptera)

The nature of the centromere and the orientation in meiosis of silkworm chromosomes were investigated using the trivalent of the F1 hybrid between the wild and domestic silkworm and X-ray-induced aberrant chromosomes as well as normal silkworm chromosomes. The results of the experiments were as follows: (1) Pro-metaphase chromosomes showed no distinct primary constriction even after treatment with hypotonic solution, (2) sister chromatids separated in parallel along the entire length of the chromosome at mitotic anaphase, (3) chiasmata underwent complete terminalization during diakinesis and thus chromosome dyads were always connected end-to-end by a terminal chiasma at metaphase I, (4) radiation-induced aberrant chromosomes were stably transmitted throughout a number of cell generations, and (5) although the homomorphic bivalents generally orientated axially at metaphase I and equatorially at metaphase II, this normal sequence tended to be inverted or modified in the X-ray-induced aberrant chromosomes and in the trivalent of the F1 hybrid silkworms. These observations may be best interpreted by assuming the holocentric nature of silkworm chromosomes.

An increased level of sperm abnormalities in mice with a partial deletion of the Y chromosome.

Two congenic lines of mice, one with a partial deletion of the Y chromosome, differ in the percentage of spermatozoa with abnormal heads: B10.BR/SgSn males give 22.6% and B10.BR-Ydel/Ms males give 64.2% abnormal sperm. The F1s resulting from crosses of B10.BR/SgSn males with females of five common inbred strains exhibited significantly lower levels of abnormal sperm than the parental strains, as opposed to F1 hybrids sired by B10.BR-Ydel/Ms mutant males, where very high levels of abnormal spermatozoa were found. About 30% of abnormal spermatozoa, produced by males with deletion on the Y chromosome, were characterized by a flat acrosomal cap. This class of abnormality was never observed in non-mutant males, suggesting a mutant-specific defect. These results demonstrate the important role of the Y chromosome in spermatogenesis.

High frequency of X-Y chromosome dissociation in primary spermatocytes of F1 hybrids between Japanese wild mice (Mus musculus molossinus) and inbred laboratory mice

In the hybrids between Japanese wild mice (Mus musculus molossinus) and inbred laboratory mice (BALB/c and B10.BR, which were probably derived from M. m. domesticus), the X and Y chromosomes dissociated precociously at the first meiotic metaphase in some 70% of spermatocytes; that percentage was only 8.9% in inbred laboratory mice and 21.1% in wild mice. X-Y dissociation began at least at early diakinesis and continued during metaphase I (MI). Some autosomes of the hybrid (10.1%) and BALB/c (10.6%) mice also dissociated precociously, but there was no distinctive correlation between X-Y and autosomal dissociation. In B10 or B6 congenic lines with a Y chromosome from wild M. m. molossinus, there was an apparent tendency for the percentage of precocious X-Y dissociation to decrease with an increasing number of back cross generations. Based on these observations we concluded that: 1. the X-Y dissociation found is genetically controlled, perhaps by multiple genes; 2. these genes are located on autosomes and are active only when they are heterozygous; 3. the frequent dissociation of the sex chromosomes neither affects male fertility nor induces non-disjunction of the X and Y chromosomes, though it significantly reduces testes weight.

Genomic dispersion of 28S rDNA during karyotypic evolution in the ant genusMyrmecia (Formicidae)

The chromosomal localization of 28S rDNA was investigated in 16 speices of the Australian ant genus Myrmecia, with 2n numbers ranging from 4 to 76, using the fluorescence in situ hybridization method and karyographic analysis. A unique phenomenon was observed: the number of chromosomes carrying 28S rDNA increases from 2 in species with low chromosome numbers to 19 in species with high chromosome numbers. This is termed rDNA dispersion. Centric fission and a reciprocal translocation that occurs in C-bands were detected as the major mechanisms involved in rDNA dispersion.

Multiplication of 28S rDNA and NOR activity in chromosome evolution among ants of the Myrmecia pilosula species complex

AbstractChromosomal localization of rDNA in samples of five taxa of the Myrmecia pilosula species complex (Hymeoptera: Formicidae: Myrmeciinae) with 2n=3 (M. croslandi), 8 (M. imaii), 10 (M. banksi), 18 (M. haskinsorum), and 27 (M. pilosula) was carried out by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using cloned M. croslandi rDNA (pMc.r2) including the coding region for 28S rRNA. Results show that (1) the 28S rDNA in the genome of these ants is repetitive and is localized in pericentromeric C-bands, (2) the number of chromosomes carrying rDNA is two in M. croslandi, M. imaii and M. banksi, six in M. haskinsorum and ten in M. pilosula, and (3) only one or two clusters of rRNA genes generate nucleoli in each species. We suggest that the rDNA in the ancestral stock of the M. pilosula complex was localized originally in a pericentromeric C-band, and multiplied by chance with time during saltatory increases in C-banding following episodes of centric fission. Most rDNA multiplied on various chromosomes seems to be inactivated and eliminated from the genome, together with C-bands, by

Chromosomal polymorphisms involving telomere fusion, centromeric inactivation and centromere shift in the ant Myrmecia (pilosula) n=1

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A re-examination of chiasma terminalization and chiasma frequency in male mice

-inversion or centric fusion, with the remnant rDNAs dispersed in the genome by centric fission and