Open AccessG‐banding patterns of the chromosomes of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense
Author(s) -
WANG CHANGLIU,
ZHANG SHICUI,
CHU JIANSONG
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
hereditas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1601-5223
pISSN - 0018-0661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1601-5223.2004.01750.x
Subject(s) - biology , autosome , karyotype , chromosome , genetics , x chromosome , metaphase , cytogenetics , evolutionary biology , zoology , gene
Chromosome banding study remains lacking in amphioxus heretofore. This paper reports the G‐band patterns of the metaphase chromosomes of amphioxus Branchiostoma belcheri tsingtauense , the first description and numbering of the karyotyped bands in a cephalochordate. G‐banding results show that four out of the ten second pair chromosomes examined are heteromorphic, while the remaining ones (6/10) are homomorphic. In contrast, the other 17 pair chromosomes are all homomorphic. These broadly support our previous suggestion that the chromosomes No. 2 are a pair of sex‐chromosomes. G‐banding method stains positively 65.5% of the chromosome surface, and a total of 149 G‐bands (77 positive, 65 negative and 7 variable) has been recorded in the 17 autosomes and the dimorphic chromosomes 2A′ and 2A.