Analysis of cytogenetic differentiation in selected species of the family Camelidae: Vicugna pacos and Vicugna vicugna

Wojciech Kruszynski Et Al

doi:10.15414/afz.2016.19.si.38-40

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analysis of cytogenetic differentation in two species: Vicugna pacos and Vicugna vicugna . Cytogenetic analysis based on blood culture technique. Blood culture were set up in culture medium Limphogrow and Lymphochrome. The cells growth, after 71 hours, was kept in metaphase using colcemid. Metaphase chromosomes were treated with hypotonic solution (KCl) for 30 minutes and fixed in a mixture of methanol and glacial acetic acid (3:1). After that, chromosomes were stained with Giemsa. Chromosomes were analyzed under microscope using Optica Vision pro-3 and MultiScan programs. Both species have 2n=74 and showed close homology between autosomes and sex chromosomes. Analysed karyotypes consist of 19 pairs acrocentric, 9 pairs metacentric, 5 pairs subtelocentric and 3 pairs submetacentric autosomes. Sex chromosomes X was metacentric and Y was acrocentric.

Highlights

Camelids family belongs to the herbivorous, placental mammals of the order Artiodactyla
The cytogenetic analysis takes into account the size of the chromosomes, and the ratio of the short arm of chromosome (p) to the long arm (q)
Both analyzed species belonging to the family Camelidae showed great similarity in karyotypes and the same number of chromosomes (2n = 74)

Summary

Introduction

Camelids family belongs to the herbivorous, placental mammals of the order Artiodactyla. It includes 6 species: camel dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), camel bactrian (Camelus bactrianus), llama (Lama glama), guanaco (Lama guanicoe), alpaca (Vicugna pacos) and vicuna (Vicugna vicugna) (Czerwiński and Krop-Warotek, 2005). Of Camelidae can be divided into individuals of the Old World and New World. New World camelids are two domesticated species – llama and alpaca and two wild species - vicuna and guanaco, while the dromedary camel and bactrian represent the Old World (Alhadrami, 2003; Fernandez-Baca, 1994). Study of the Camelidae family are subject to a number of considerations, because the species belonging to this family have many behavioral, physiological and morphological similarities. The cytogenetic analysis takes into account the size of the chromosomes (including the surface area of autosomes and sex chromosomes), and the ratio of the short arm of chromosome (p) to the long arm (q)

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