Abstract
The genus Artibeus represents a highly diverse group of bats from the Neotropical region, with four large species occurring in Brazil. In this paper, a comparative cytogenetic study was carried out on the species Artibeus obscurus Schinz, 1821, Artibeus fimbriatus Gray, 1838, Artibeus lituratus Olfers, 1818 and Artibeus planirostris Spix, 1823 that live sympatrically in the northeast of Brazil, through C-banding, silver staining and DNA-specific fluorochromes (CMA3 and DAPI). All the species had karyotypes with 2n=30,XX and 2n=31,XY1Y2, and FN=56. C-banding showed constitutive heterochromatin (CH) blocks in the pericentromeric regions of all the chromosomes and small CH blocks at the terminal region of pairs 5, 6, and 7 for all species. Notably, our C-banding data revealed species-specific autosomic CH blocks for each taxon, as well as different heterochromatic constitution of Y2 chromosomes of Artibeus planirostris. Ag-NORs were observed in the short arms of chromosomes 5, 6 and 7 in all species. The sequential staining AgNO3/CMA3/DA/DAPI indicated a positive association of CH with Ag-NORs and positive CMA3 signals, thus reflecting GC-richness in these regions in Artibeus obscurus and Artibeus fimbriatus. In this work it was possible to identify interespecific divergences in the Brazilian large Artibeus species using C-banding it was possible provided a suitable tool in the cytotaxonomic differentiation of this genus.
Highlights
The genus Artibeus Leach, 1821 has been divided into two main groups based on body size
The specimens studied were six males and eight females of Artibeus obscurus; two males and four females of A. fimbriatus; eight males and five females of A. planirostris; ten males and ten females of A. lituratus captured at different sites across the Pernambuco State: Igarassu (07°50'02"S, 34°54'21"W), Água Preta (08°42'27"S, 35°31'50"W), Rio Formoso (08°39'50"S, 35°09'32"W), Ipojuca (08°24'00"S, 35°03'45"W) and Recife (08°03'14"S, 34°52'51"W)
C-banding revealed constitutive heterochromatin (CH) in the pericentromeric region of all the autosomes and small heterochromatic blocks were observed in the terminal region of chromosome pairs 5, 6 and 7 (Fig. 1a–d)
Summary
The genus Artibeus Leach, 1821 has been divided into two main groups based on body size. A new subgenus Koopmania Owen, 1991 was proposed by Owen (1987, 1991) to set apart one of the species, A. concolor Peters, 1865. This subgenus was later disregarded by Van De Bussche et al (1998) based on morphological, enzymatic, molecular and karyotypic analysis. Marchán-Rivadeneira et al (2010) described the genus Artibeus as constituted by 11 large-body size species including A. concolor as the basal taxon. The genus is widely distributed from Mexico to northern Argentina, including the Antillean islands in the Caribbean (Simmons 2005)
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