Karyotypes, Sex Chromosomes, and Meiotic Division in Spiders

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Abstract

From the cytogenetic point of view, spiders are the best studied arachnid order. In spite of this, karyotype data are still available only for less than 2 % of spider species. These data indicate a considerable diversity of diploid numbers, chromosome morphology, and sex chromosome systems in some spider lineages. Most spiders exhibit a standard chromosome structure except for the superfamily Dysderoidea that has holokinetic chromosomes (a derived type of chromosomes without centromere). The unusual multiple sex chromosomes of spiders have received more attention than any other aspect of their cytogenetics. Most species exhibit the so-called X1X20 system with X1X2 males and X1X1X2X2 females. This sex chromosome determination, considered ancestral for spiders, has an unclear origin. Recently found unusual sex chromosome behaviour at meiosis of female spiders may represent a system acting to restrict pairing and recombination to homologous X chromosomes and support the hypothesis on the origin of multiple X chromosomes by duplications. Despite its evolutionary stability, the X1X20 system has been transformed in some lineages by X–X fusions, by X chromosome duplications, or via sex chromosome–autosome rearrangements. Finally, some spiders also exhibit modifications of meiotic division, e.g. the bipolarisation of prophase I nucleus in males of entelegyne spiders: bivalents form two groups at opposite sides of the nucleus. Prior to formation of the metaphase plate, each bivalent is encased in a double membrane tube, which extends nearly to the spindle poles.

Keywords

Meiotic Division Centric Fusion Diffuse Stage Tandem Fusion Biarmed Chromosome 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to our colleagues M. Forman, I.M. Ávila Herrera, and L. Krkavcová who kindly provided original data, images, and karyotypes of selected species for Figs. 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3. Furthermore, we are very grateful to D. Ubick (California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco) for species determination of Kukulcania. We apologise to the authors whose work was not cited due to the space constraints. This study was supported by the project of the Grant Agency of the Czech Academy of Sciences (project IAA601110808).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Laboratory of Arachnid Cytogenetics, Department of Genetics and MicrobiologyFaculty of Science, Charles UniversityPragueCzech Republic

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