Abstract
The karyotypes of three species of Pyrgomorphidae grasshoppers were studied: Zonocerus elegans (Thunberg, 1815), Pyrgomorpha guentheri (Burr, 1899) and Atractomorpha lata (Mochulsky, 1866). Data on karyotypes of P. guentheri and Z. elegans are reported here for the first time. All species have karyotypes consisting of 19 acrocentric chromosomes in males and 20 acrocentric chromosomes in females (2n♂=19, NF=19; 2n♀=20, NF=20) and X0/XX sex determination system. A comparative analysis of the localization of C-heterochromatin, clusters of ribosomal DNA, and telomere repeats revealed inter-species diversity in these cytogenetic markers. These differences indicate that the karyotype divergence in the species studied is not associated with structural chromosome rearrangements, but with the evolution of repeated DNA sequences.
Highlights
Orthoptera is undoubtedly one of the most well cytogenetically studied groups of insects
All species have karyotypes consisting of acrocentric chromosomes in males and acrocentric chromosomes in females (2n♂=19, NF=19; 2n♀=20, NF=20) and X0/XX sex determination system
Three species belonging to Pyrgomorphidae were studied: 1) Zonocerus elegans (Thunberg, 1815) (Phymateini tribe) – six males of this species collected during February and March 2003 in South Africa, in vicinity of Springbok city; 2) Pyrgomorpha guentheri (Burr, 1899), (Pyrgomorphini tribe) – five males of this species collected in June 2007 in Armenia; 3) Atractomorpha lata (Mochulsky, 1866) (Atractomorphini tribe) – two males of this species collected in August, 2005 on Ishigaki island (Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan)
Summary
Orthoptera is undoubtedly one of the most well cytogenetically studied groups of insects. It was through working on Orthoptera that Robertson (1916) established the main tendencies in insect karyotype evolution through centric fusion of chromosomes, Darlington (1931, 1932) described meiosis in detail, and White (1968, 1973) proposed the chromosome speciation hypothesis. Analysis of chromosome sets within such Orthoptera groups, which have never been studied before, in conjunction with the use of new techniques for chromosome research, may potentially lead to many new insights. As an example, using molecular cytogenetic methods, in-depth research of the family Pamphagidae has recently revealed new evolutionary pathways of autosomes and sex chromosomes previously unknown in this family (Bugrov et al 2016, Jetybayev et al 2017)
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