Karyotypical characteristics of two allopatric African populations of anhydrobiotic Polypedilum Kieffer, 1912 (Diptera, Chironomidae) originating from Nigeria and Malawi

By

Petrova, Ninel
Cornette, Richard
Shimura, Sachiko
Gusev, Oleg
Pemba, Dylo
Kikawada, Takahiro
Zhirov, Sergey V.
Okuda, Takashi

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2015

Original Publication

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

Volume

9

Series / Issue

Issue: 2

Pages

173-188

Subjects

Allopatric populations , anhydrobiosis , Chironomidae , Malawi , Nigeria , Polypedilum vanderplanki , polytene chromosomes

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.v9i2.9104

 

Abstract

The African chironomid Polypedilum vanderplanki Hinton, 1951 is the only chironomid able to withstand almost complete desiccation in an ametabolic state known as anhydrobiosis. The karyotypes of two allopatric populations of this anhydrobiotic chironomid, one from Nigeria and another from Malawi, were described according to the polytene giant chromosomes. The karyotype from the Nigerian population was presented as the reference chromosome map for P. vanderplanki. Both populations, Nigerian and Malawian, showed the same number of chromosomes (2n=8), but important differences were found in the band sequences of polytene chromosomes, and in the number and the arrangement of active regions between the two populations. Such important differences raise the possibility that the Malawian population could constitute a distinct new species of anhydrobiotic chironomid.