Karyotype rearrangements and telomere analysis in Myzus persicae (Hemiptera, Aphididae) strains collected on Lavandula sp. plants

By

Mandrioli, Mauro
Zanasi, Federica
Manicardi, Gian Carlo

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2014

Original Publication

Comparative cytogenetics : international journal of plant & animal cytogenetics, karyosystematics and molecular systematics

Volume

8

Series / Issue

Issue: 4

Pages

259-274

Subjects

Aphids , de novo telomeres , holocentric chromosomes , karyotype rearrangements , Myzus persicae , shelterin

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

St. Petersburg, Russia [Published] with technical support of Zoological Institute RAS [2007]-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/CompCytogen.v8i4.8568

 

Abstract

Karyotype analysis of nine strains of the peach-potato aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer, 1776), collected on Lavandula sp. plants, evidenced showed that five of them had a standard 2n = 12 karyotype, one possessed a fragmentation of the X chromosome occurring at the telomere opposite to the NOR-bearing one and three strains had a chromosome number 2n = 11 due to a non-reciprocal translocation of an autosome A3 onto an A1 chromosome. Interestingly, the terminal portion of the autosome A1 involved in the translocation was the same in all the three strains, as evidenced by FISH with the histone cluster as a probe. The study of telomeres in the M. persicae strain with the X fission evidenced that telomerase synthesised de novo telomeres at the breakpoints resulting in the stabilization of the chromosomal fragments. Lastly, despite the presence of a conserved telomerase, aphid genome is devoid of genes coding for shelterin, a complex of proteins involved in telomere functioning frequently reported as conserved in eukaryotes. The absence of this complex, also confirmed in the genome of other arthropods, suggests that the shift in the sequence of the telomeric repeats has been accompanied by other changes in the telomere components in arthropods in respect to other metazoans.