Abstract
Marsupials are an ancient group of mammals that fill diverse niches in Australia, New Guinea, the East Indies and America. These species separated from eutherians around 150 million years ago and the American species diverged from the Australian species around 70 million years ago. Compared to other mammalian species, the karyotypes of marsupials are highly conserved; their diploid numbers range from 2n = 10–32 but with a predominance of 2n = 14 or 2n = 22. The first chromosome comparative studies were performed mainly by searching for similarities in G-banding patterns leading to hypotheses on the ancestral marsupial karyotype and the chromosome rearrangement mechanisms that resulted in the karyotypes seen in the extant species. The advent of chromosome painting allowed chromosome comparisons to be based on chromosome-wide sequence similarities, which is a more accurate method than the indirect method of banding analysis. This chapter is divided into six sections. The first section describes early marsupial karyotype studies performed by G-banding and introduces hypotheses on marsupial chromosome evolution. The second explains chromosome painting techniques including flow karyotyping and flow sorting, and presents results in the form of chromosome paint images and chromosome homology maps. The third section describes marsupial chromosome evolution in terms of phylogeny, ancestral karyotypes, chromosome conserved regions, and mechanisms of chromosome rearrangements. The fourth section explains the role of centromere dynamics in marsupial chromosome evolution. The fifth section focuses on recent work on the sequenced genome of the opossum. This section is followed by concluding remarks.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Altmann SCA, Ellery MEW (1925) The chromosomes of four species of marsupials. Q J Microsc Sci 69:463–469.
Amrine-Madsen H, Scally M, Westerman M, Stanhope MJ, Krajewski C, Springer MS (2003) Nuclear gene sequences provide evidence for the monophyly of australidelphian marsupials. Mol Phylogenet Evol 28:186–196.
Bulazel KV, Ferreri GC, Eldridge MD, O’Neill RJ (2007) Species-specific shifts in centromere sequence composition are coincident with breakpoint reuse in karyotypically divergent lineages. Genome Biol 8:R170.
Carvalho BD, Mattevi MS (2000) (T2AG3)n telomeric sequence hybridization suggestive of centric fusion in karyotype marsupials evolution. Genetica 108:205–210.
Carvalho BD, Oliveira CLFB, Nunes AP, Mattevi MS (2002) Karyotypes of nineteen marsupial species from Brazil. J Mammal 83:58–70.
De Leo AA, Guedelha N, Toder R, et al. (1999) Comparative chromosome painting between marsupial orders: relationships with a 2n = 14 ancestral marsupial karyotype. Chromosome Res 7:509–517.
Edwards CA, Mungall AJ, Matthews L, et al. (2008) The evolution of the DLK1-DIO3 imprinted domain in mammals. PLoS Biol 6:e135.
Edwards CA, Rens W, Clarke O, et al. (2007) The evolution of imprinting: chromosomal mapping of orthologues of mammalian imprinted domains in monotreme and marsupial mammals. BMC Evol Biol 7:157.
Eldridge MD, Close RL (1993) Radiation of chromosome shuffles. Curr Opin Genet Dev 3: 915–922.
Eldridge MD, Johnston PG, Close RL (1992a) Chromosomal rearrangements in rock wallabies, Petrogale (Marsupialia: Macropodidae). VI. Determination of the plesiomorphic karyotype: G-banding comparison of Thylogale with Petrogale persephone, P. xanthopus, and P. l. lateralis. Cytogenet Cell Genet 61:29–33.
Eldridge MD, Johnston PG, Lowry PS (1992b) Chromosomal rearrangements in rock wallabies, Petrogale (Marsupialia: Macropodidae). VII. G-banding analysis of Petrogale brachyotis and P. concinna: species with dramatically altered karyotypes. Cytogenet Cell Genet 61:34–39.
Eldridge MD, Metcalfe CJ (2006) Marsupialia. In: O’Brien SJ, Menniger J, Nash W (eds) Atlas of Mammalian Chromosomes. Wiley, New York, NY.
Ferreri GC, Marzelli M, Rens W, O’Neill RJ (2004) A centromere-specific retroviral element associated with breaks of synteny in macropodine marsupials. Cytogenet Genome Res 107:115–118.
Glas R, De Leo AA, Delbridge ML, et al. (1999) Chromosome painting in marsupials: genome conservation in the kangaroo family. Chromosome Res 7:167–176.
Hayman DL (1990) Marsupial cytogenetics. Aust J Zool 37:331–349.
Hayman DL, Martin PG (1969) Cytogenetics of marsupials. In: Benirschke K (ed) Comparative Mammalian Cytogenetics. Springer, New York, NY.
Johnston PG, Davey RJ, Seebeck JH (1984) Chromosome homologies in Potorous tridactylus and P. longipes (Marsupialia:Macropodidae) based on G-banding patterns. Aust J Zool 32: 319–324.
Kemkemer C, Kohn M, Cooper DN, et al. (2009) Gene synteny comparisons between different vertebrates provide new insights into breakage and fusion events during mammalian karyotype evolution. BMC Evol Biol 9:84.
Lebo RV, Bastian AM (1982) Design and operation of a dual laser chromosome sorter. Cytometry 3:213–219.
Longo MS, Carone DM, Program NC, Green ED, O’Neill MJ, O’Neill RJ (2009) Distinct retroelement classes define evolutionary breakpoints demarcating sites of evolutionary novelty. BMC Genom 10:334.
Meredith RW, Westerman M, Springer MS (2009) A phylogeny of Diprotodontia (Marsupialia) based on sequences for five nuclear genes. Mol Phylogenet Evol 51:554–571.
Metcalfe CJ, Bulazel KV, Ferreri GC, et al. (2007) Genomic instability within centromeres of interspecific marsupial hybrids. Genetics 177:2507–2517.
Mikkelsen TS, Wakefield MJ, Aken B, et al. (2007) Genome of the marsupial Monodelphis domestica reveals innovation in non-coding sequences. Nature 447:167–177.
Murray JD, Donnellan S, McKay GM, et al. (1990) The chromosomes of four genera of possums from the family Petauridae (Marsupialia;Diprotodonta). Aust J Zool 38:33–39.
Murray JD, Sharman GB, McKay GM, Calaby JH (1980) Karyotypes, constitutive heterochromatin and taxonomy of ringtail opossums of the genus Pseudocheirus (Marsupialia: Petauridae). Cytogenet Cell Genet 27:73–81.
O’Neill RJ, Eldridge MD, Toder R, Ferguson-Smith MA, O’Brien PC, Graves JA (1999) Chromosome evolution in kangaroos (Marsupialia: Macropodidae): cross species chromosome painting between the tammar wallaby and rock wallaby spp. with the 2n = 22 ancestral macropodid karyotype. Genome 42:525–530.
Reig OA, Gardner AL, Bianchi NO, Patton JL (1977) The chromosomes of the Didelphidae (Marsupialia) and their evolutionary significance. Biol J Linn Soc 9:191–216
Renfree MB, Hore TA, Shaw G, Graves JA, Pask AJ (2009) Evolution of genomic imprinting: insights from marsupials and monotremes. Annu Rev Genomics Hum Genet 10:241–262.
Rens W, O’Brien PC, Fairclough H, Harman L, Graves JA, Ferguson-Smith MA (2003) Reversal and convergence in marsupial chromosome evolution. Cytogenet Genome Res 102:282–290.
Rens W, O’Brien PC, Yang F, et al. (2001) Karyotype relationships between distantly related marsupials from South America and Australia. Chromosome Res 9:301–308.
Rens W, O’Brien PC, Yang F, Graves JA, Ferguson-Smith MA (1999) Karyotype relationships between four distantly related marsupials revealed by reciprocal chromosome painting. Chromosome Res 7:461–474.
Rofe R, Hayman D. (1985) G-banding evidence for a conserved complement in the Marsupialia. Cytogenet Cell Genet 39:40–50.
Siddle HV, Deakin JE, Coggill P, et al. (2009) MHC-linked and un-linked class I genes in the wallaby. BMC Genom 10:310.
Sinclair EA, Murch AR, Renzo MD, Palermo M (2000) Chromosome morphology in Gilbert’s potoroo, Potorous gilbertii (Marsupialia:Potoroidae). Aust J Zool 48:281–287.
Souza de MJ, Maia V, Santos dos JF (1990) Nucleolar organizer regions, G- and C-bands in some Brazilian species of Didelphidae. Braz J Genet 13:767–775.
Svartman M, Vianna-Morgante AM (1998) Karyotype evolution of marsupials: from higher to lower diploid numbers. Cytogenet Cell Genet 82:263–266.
Svartman M, Vianna-Morgante AM (1999) Comparative genome analysis in American marsupials: chromosome banding and in-situ hybridization. Chromosome Res 7:267–275.
Telenius H, Pelmear AH, Tunnacliffe A, et al. (1992) Cytogenetic analysis by chromosome painting using DOP-PCR amplified flow-sorted chromosomes. Genes Chromosomes Cancer 4:257–263.
Toder R, O’Neill RJ, Wienberg J, O’Brien PC, Voullaire L, Marshall-Graves JA (1997) Comparative chromosome painting between two marsupials: origins of an XX/XY1Y2 sex chromosome system. Mamm Genome 8:418–422.
Yang F, Alkalaeva EZ, Perelman PL, et al. (2003) Reciprocal chromosome painting among human, aardvark, and elephant (superorder Afrotheria) reveals the likely eutherian ancestral karyotype. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 100:1062–1066.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rens, W., Ferguson-Smith, M. (2010). The Conserved Marsupial Karyotype: Chromosome Painting and Evolution. In: Deakin, J., Waters, P., Marshall Graves, J. (eds) Marsupial Genetics and Genomics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9023-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9023-2_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-9022-5
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-9023-2
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)