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Ultrastructure, meiotic behavior, and evolution of sex chromosomes of the genus Ellobius

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Abstract

The whole-mount SC preparations from males of three species of the genus Ellobius (Ellobius fuscocapillus, Ellobius lutescens), and Ellobius tancrei Footnote 1 were studied by electron microscopy. In the males of Ellobius fuscocapillus, behavioral peculiarities of the sex bivalent (viz. the normal male heterozygosity) are characterized by early complete desynapsis of sex chromosomes (X, Y), occurring at late pachytene-early diplotene. The karyotype of species Ellobius lutescens is unique for mammals. In both sexes it is characterized by an odd number of chromosomes (2n=17). At prophase I the unpaired chromosome 9 is not involved in synapsis with other chromosomes and forms a sex body at the end of pachytene.

The complete Robertsonian fan has been described for superspecies Ellobius tancrei. As shown on the basis of G-band patterns the male and female sex chromosomes are cytologically indistinguishable.

Analysis of whole-mount SC preparations revealed the formation of a closed sex SC bivalent and showed some morphological differences in the axes of sex chromosomes at meiotic prophase I. A number of assumptions are made about the relationship between the behavior of sex chromosomes, their evolution and the sex determination system in the studied species of genus Ellobius.

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Notes

  1. Ellobius tancrei has been distinguished as a separate superspecies recently (Vorontsov & Yakimenko, 1984); earlier it was systematically attributed to species Ellobius talpinus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. N. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, USSR Academy of Sciences, Gubkin Street 3, 117809, Moscow B-333, USSR

    O. L. Kolomiets & E. A. Lyapunova

  2. N. I. Kol' tsov Institute of Developmental Biology, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR

    N. N. Vorontsov

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  1. O. L. Kolomiets
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  2. N. N. Vorontsov
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  3. E. A. Lyapunova
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  4. T. F. Mazurova
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Kolomiets, O.L., Vorontsov, N.N., Lyapunova, E.A. et al. Ultrastructure, meiotic behavior, and evolution of sex chromosomes of the genus Ellobius . Genetica 84, 179–189 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127245

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00127245

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