Chromosome banding and molecular cytogenetics of the Barbary macaque, Macaca sylvanus

Abstract

Macaca sylvanus has a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 42. With the exception of chromosome 2 all chromosomes appear to have an identical banding pattern to most other macaque species. This chromosome has a clear band, localized immediately below the centromere; therefore, the karyotype of M. sylvanus more closely resembles that of the African Papionini, which also present a large clearly staining band on chromosome 2. C-banding intensely stained this band. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) with human chromosome specific DNA probes to macaque chromosome 2 showed that human probe 7 was located on the whole q arm and on a small part of the p arm, immediately adjacent to the centromere; the remaining part of the p arm was hybridized by the DNA probe for human chromosome 21. It appears clear, from the hybridization pattern in the other primates and in the outgroups examined, that chromosome 7 was probably a syntenic region for many ancestral mammalian karyotypes and a single syntenic region in the ancestral karyotype of the primates. Human probe for chromosome 21 and 3 are found associated in New World primates and a wide range of mammalian species. Therefore, this syntenic association was probably ancestral for mammals and present in the ancestral primate karyotype. The translocation of 7 and 21 to form chromosome 2 of Macaca sylvanus and all other Papionini is probably a recent trait linking all these species.

Molecular Cytogenetic Analysis of One African and Five Asian Macaque Species Reveals Identical Karyotypes as in Mandrill

“… Results of MCB and selected locus- and heterochromatin-specific probes are depicted here. Macaque chromosomes are numbered according to Morescalchi et al [ 29 ]. …”

Karyological Study of Fresh Water Fish Channa Punctatus with G and NOR Banding Pattern

“…With the exception of one chromosome, which had clear bands situated right below the centromere, Morescalchiet at. (1998) applied the g banding patterns to the chromosomes of Macacasylvanus and noticed that all chromosomes appeared to have an identical banding pattern to most macaque species[54]. Sharma and Sharma (1998) also noted the use of G bands on numerous Indian fish species[55].…”