Molecular cytotaxonomy of New World monkeys (Platyrrhini) – comparative analysis of five species by multi-color chromosome painting gives evidence for a classification of Callimico goeldii within the family of Callitrichidae

Abstract

Chromosome rearrangements are considered as “rare genomic changes” and can provide useful markers and even landmarks for reconstructing phylogenies complementary to DNA sequence data and bio-morphological comparisons. Here, we applied multi-directional chromosome painting to reconstruct the chromosome phylogeny and evolutionary relationships among the New World monkey (Platyrrhini) species Callithrix argentata, Cebuella pygmaea, Saguinus oedipus, Callithrix jacchus and Callimico goeldii. The results clarified several aspects of New Wold monkey phylogeny. In particular the phylogenetic position of C. goeldii was elucidated, which has been controversially discussed and variously classified in the family Callitrichidae, in the family Cebidae or in its own family Callimiconidae. Comparative genome maps were established by multi-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with human, S. oedipus and Lagothrix lagothricha chromosome- specific DNA probes. From these data we reconstructed the putative ancestral karyotype of all Callitrichidae. Various derived chromosomal syntenies are shared by all five species and cytogenetically define Callitrichidae – including Callimico goeldii – as a distinctive group within the Platyrrhini. C. pygmaea and C. argentata share identical chromosomal syntenies from which S. oedipus and C. jacchus differ by single independent translocations. A common derived chromosomal change links Callimico with the marmosets to the exclusion of the tamarins, however, it has further diverged from an ancestral marmoset karyotype by at least four apomorphic rearrangements. Saimiri sciureus, representing the Cebinae, exclusively shares a derived syntenic association with all Callithrichidae, defining the genus Saimiri as a sister group.