First karyotype description of Epiplatys spilargyreius (Duméril, 1861) with comments on chromosome evolution in the genus Epiplatys Gill, 1862 (Nothobranchiidae)

By

Simanovsky, Sergey
Skuratovskaya, Alexandra Yu.
Simonian, Margarita G.
Medvedev, Dmitry A.
Tefera, Fekadu
Golubtsov, Alexander

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-6-19

Original Publication

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

Volume

19

Pages

109--115

Subjects

Centromere repositioning , chromosome fissions , chromosome fusions , chromosome inversions

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.19.151345

 

Abstract

The African non-annual killifish genus Epiplatys Gill, 1862 (family Nothobranchiidae) comprises 36 valid species distributed in West, Central and East Africa. The available cytogenetic information for the genus indicates a wide variability in diploid chromosome number (2n) and number of chromosome arms (FN). Here, we report the karyotype of Epiplatys spilargyreius (Duméril, 1861), one of the two species with the lowest diploid chromosome number (2n = 34) in the genus, from the White Nile basin in Ethiopia. Male and female karyotypes contained 18 metacentric/acrocentric and 16 subtelocentric/acrocentric chromosomes. The number of chromosome arms is, respectively, FN = 52. Analysis of karyotype differentiation in the genus allowed us to suggest that the 2n reduction in E. spilargyreius and many other members of the genus Epiplatys is mainly due to Robertsonian translocations (reduction of 2n from 48 to 34 with stable NF = 48–52). We provide an up-to-date summary of cytogenetic data and a brief review of chromosome evolution in the genus.