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XX/XO, a rare sex chromosome system in Potamotrygon freshwater stingray from the Amazon Basin, Brazil

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Abstract

Potamotrygonidae is a representative family of South American freshwater elasmobranchs. Cytogenetic studies were performed in a Potamotrygon species from the middle Negro River, Amazonas, Brazil, here named as Potamotrygon sp. C. Mitotic and meiotic chromosomes were analyzed using conventional staining techniques, C-banding, and detection of the nucleolus organizing regions (NOR) with Silver nitrate (Ag-NOR). The diploid number was distinct between sexes, with males having 2n = 67 chromosomes, karyotype formula 19m + 8sm + 10st + 30a, and fundamental number (FN) = 104, and females having 2n = 68 chromosomes, karyotype formula 20m + 8sm + 10st + 30a, and FN = 106. A large chromosome, corresponding to pair number two in the female karyotype, was missing in the male complement. Male meiotic cells had 33 bivalents plus a large univalent chromosome in metaphase I, and n = 33 and n = 34 chromosomes in metaphase II. These characteristics are consistent with a sex chromosome system of the XX/XO type. Several Ag-NOR sites were identified in both male and female karyotypes. Positive C-banding was located only in the centromeric regions of the chromosomes. This sex chromosome system, which rarely occurs in fish, is now being described for the first time among the freshwater rays of the Amazon basin.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA), and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM—Programa Integrado de Pesquisa Científica and Tecnológica—PIPT Proc. 1749/08/T.O.N.: 299/08). FCS Valentim received a study grant from FAPEAM through the graduate program in Genetics, Conservation and Evolutionary Biology (GCBEv/INPA).

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  1. Laboratório de Genética Animal, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Av. André Araújo, 2936, Petrópolis, Manaus, AM, 69067-375, Brazil

    Francisco Carlos de Souza Valentim, Jorge Ivan Rebelo Porto & Eliana Feldberg

  2. Departamento de Genética e Evolução, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Rodovia Washington Luiz Km. 235, C.P. 676, São Carlos, SP, 13565-905, Brazil

    Luiz Antonio Carlos Bertollo

  3. Laboratório de Citogenômica Animal, Departamento de Biologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Av. Rodrigo Otávio Jordão, 3000, Manaus, AM, 69700-000, Brazil

    Maria Claudia Gross

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  1. Francisco Carlos de Souza Valentim
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  2. Jorge Ivan Rebelo Porto
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  3. Luiz Antonio Carlos Bertollo
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  4. Maria Claudia Gross
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  5. Eliana Feldberg
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Correspondence to Francisco Carlos de Souza Valentim.

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de Souza Valentim, F.C., Porto, J.I.R., Bertollo, L.A.C. et al. XX/XO, a rare sex chromosome system in Potamotrygon freshwater stingray from the Amazon Basin, Brazil. Genetica 141, 381–387 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-013-9737-2

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