Abstract
Karyotypes of two species of the African annual killifish genus Nothobranchius Peters, 1868, Nothobranchius brieni Poll, 1938 and Nothobranchius sp. from Kasenga (D.R. Congo) are described. Both species displayed diploid chromosome number 2n = 49/50 for males and females respectively with multiple-sex chromosome system type X1X2Y/X1X1X2X2. The karyotypes of studied species are considerably different from those previously reported for the genus Nothobranchius and similar to the Actinopterygii conservative karyotype.
Highlights
Annual killifishes belonging to the genus Nothobranchius Peters, 1868 are mainly distributed in eastern Africa but several species are found in central Africa (Wildekamp 2004)
More than 60% of karyotypes in Nothobranchius are characterised by a modal diploid number of 2n = 36-38
The female karyotype consisted of 25 pairs of acrocentric chromosomes gradually decreasing in size (Fig. 2a)
Summary
Annual killifishes belonging to the genus Nothobranchius Peters, 1868 are mainly distributed in eastern Africa but several species are found in central Africa (Wildekamp 2004). They inhabit temporary pools that dry out during the dry season and have specific adaptations for extreme environments. Annual fishes are characterised by specific life history traits of extremely short lifespan and diapause in embryonic development (Furness 2015, Nagy 2015). Their unique biology makes them a model taxon with.
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