Cytogenetic studies in three octopods, Octopus minor, Amphioctopus fangsiao, and Cistopus chinensis from the coast of China

By

Wang, Jin-hai
Zheng, Xiaodong

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018

Original Publication

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

Volume

12

Series / Issue

Issue: 3

Pages

373-386

Subjects

Ag-NORs , C-bands , flow cytometry , genome size , karyotype , octopods

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.v12i3.25462

 

Abstract

To provide markers to identify chromosomes in the genome of octopods, chromosomes of three octopus species were subjected to NOR/C-banding. In addition, we examined their genome size (Cvalue) to submit it to the Animal Genome Size Database. Silver staining revealed that the number of Ag-nucleoli was 2 (Octopusminor(Sasaki, 1920)), 2 (Amphioctopusfangsiao(d’Orbigny, 1839)) and 1 (CistopuschinensisZheng et al., 2012), respectively, and the number of Ag-nucleoli visible was the same as that of Ag-NORs on metaphase plates in the same species. In all analyzed metaphases, Ag-NORs were mainly located terminally on the long arms of chromosomes 3 (3rd) ofO.minorand on the short arms of chromosomes 4 (4th) ofA.fangsiao, whereas only one of the chromosomes 23 (23rd) was found Ag-NORs ofC.chinensis. C-bands were localized predominantly in the centromeric regions of chromosomes in the three species, while other conspicuous stable C-bands were observed in terminal regions, including the Ag-NORs. That means these three chromosome pairs (3rd, 4thand 23rd) could be considered species-specific cytogenetic markers. The meanCvalues ofO.minor,A.fangsiaoandC.chinensiswere 7.81±0.39 pg (0.070 pg per unit length), 8.31±0.18 pg (0.068 pg per unit length) and 5.29±0.10 pg (0.038 pg per unit length), respectively, and results showed thatCvalues of the three species were not proportional to the relative length of the chromosomes. These cytogenetic characteristics will provide more theoretical foundation for further researches on chromosome evolution in octopods.