Multidirectional chromosome painting in Synallaxis frontalis (Passeriformes, Furnariidae) reveals high chromosomal reorganization, involving fissions and inversions.

Rafael Kretschmer,Alice Lemos Costa,Vanusa Lilian Camargo De Lima,Ricardo José Gunski,Marcelo Santos De Souza,Malcolm A Ferguson-Smith,Edivaldo Herculano Corrêa De Oliveira,Patricia C M O'Brien,Analía Del Valle Garnero

doi:10.3897/compcytogen.v12i1.22344

Abstract

In this work we performed comparative chromosome painting using probes from Gallus gallus (GGA) Linnaeus, 1758 and Leucopternis albicollis (LAL) Latham, 1790 in Synallaxis frontalis Pelzeln, 1859 (Passeriformes, Furnariidae), an exclusively Neotropical species, in order to analyze whether the complex pattern of intrachromosomal rearrangements (paracentric and pericentric inversions) proposed for Oscines and Suboscines is shared with more basal species. S. frontalis has 82 chromosomes, similar to most Avian species, with a large number of microchromosomes and a few pairs of macrochromosomes. We found polymorphisms in pairs 1 and 3, where homologues were submetacentric and acrocentric. Hybridization of GGA probes showed syntenies in the majority of ancestral macrochromosomes, except for GGA1 and GGA2, which hybridized to more than one pair of chromosomes each. LAL probes confirmed the occurrence of intrachromosomal rearrangements in the chromosomes corresponding to GGA1q, as previously proposed for species from the order Passeriformes. In addition, LAL probes suggest that pericentric inversions or centromere repositioning were responsible for variations in the morphology of the heteromorphic pairs 1 and 3. Altogether, the analysis of our data on chromosome painting and the data published in other Passeriformes highlights chromosomal changes that have occurred during the evolution of Passeriformes.

Highlights

Passeriformes are the largest and most diverse order of birds, with approximately 5,700 species, representing almost 60 % of all living birds (Ericson et al 2014)
The results have shown mostly the same syntenic groups found in the putative avian ancestral karyotype (PAK) proposed by Griffin et al (2007), with the exception of PAK1 (GGA1), which is split into two chromosome pairs, representing a synapomorphy shared by all the species of Passeriformes analyzed so far
The two species of the family Furnariidae described cytogenetically so far, Sittasomus griseicapillus and Lepidocolaptes angustirostris, have the same diploid number found in S. frontalis, but with variations in the morphologies of some macrochromosomes (Barbosa et al 2013)

Summary

Introduction

Passeriformes (passerines) are the largest and most diverse order of birds, with approximately 5,700 species, representing almost 60 % of all living birds (Ericson et al 2014). The order is divided into two suborders: Oscines (songbirds), which comprise 776 genera and approximately 80 % of all species of Passeriformes, and Suboscines (vocal non-learners), with 284 genera (Selvatti et al 2015). Passeriformes have the highest number of species analyzed by classical cytogenetics (Santos and Gunski 2006). Most species show diploid numbers (2n) ranging between 76–80 chromosomes, there are exceptions, such as Platyrinchus mystaceus Vieillot, 1818 a Suboscine species belonging to the Platyrinchidae family, which has 60 chromosomes (Gunski et al 2000, Santos and Gunski 2006, Correia et al 2009). Among the Furnariidae, only two species have been described cytogenetically - Sittasomus griseicapillus Vieillot, 1818 and Lepidocolaptes angustirostris Vieillot, 1818, both with 2n=82 (Barbosa et al 2013)

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