Immunocytological analysis of meiotic recombination in two anole lizards (Squamata, Dactyloidae)

By

Lisachov, Artem
Trifonov, Vladimir
Giovannotti, Massimo
Ferguson-Smith, Malcolm
Borodin, P. M. (Pavel Mikhaĭlovich)

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2017

Original Publication

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

Volume

11

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

129-141

Subjects

Anolis , Chromosomes , crossing over , Deiroptyx , lizard , Reptilia , synaptonemal complex

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.v11i1.10916

 

Abstract

Although the evolutionary importance of meiotic recombination is not disputed, the significance of interspecies differences in the recombination rates and recombination landscapes remains under-appreciated. Recombination rates and distribution of chiasmata have been examined cytologically in many mammalian species, whereas data on other vertebrates are scarce. Immunolocalization of the protein of the synaptonemal complex (SYCP3), centromere proteins and the mismatch-repair protein MLH1 was used, which is associated with the most common type of recombination nodules, to analyze the pattern of meiotic recombination in the male of two species of iguanian lizards, Anolis carolinensis Voigt, 1832 and Deiroptyx coelestinus (Cope, 1862). These species are separated by a relatively long evolutionary history although they retain the ancestral iguanian karyotype. In both species similar and extremely uneven distributions of MLH1 foci along the macrochromosome bivalents were detected: approximately 90% of crossovers were located at the distal 20% of the chromosome arm length. Almost total suppression of recombination in the intermediate and proximal regions of the chromosome arms contradicts the hypothesis that “homogenous recombination” is responsible for the low variation in GC content across the anole genome. It also leads to strong linkage disequilibrium between the genes located in these regions, which may benefit conservation of co-adaptive gene arrays responsible for the ecological adaptations of the anoles.