title: Karyotypic characterization of the bat species Molossus ater, M. molossus and Molossops planirostris (Chiroptera, Molossidae) using FISH and banding techniques.
abstract: The karyotypes of the bat species Molossus ater, M. molossus (2n = 48; NF = 64) and Molossops planirostris (2n = 34; NF = 60) were analyzed by G-, C-banding, silver nitrate staining (AgNO3), base-specific fluorochromes and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). The two species of Molossus presented the constitutive heterochromatin (CH) in the pericentromeric regions of all autosomes and in the X chromosome, while the Y chromosome was completely heterochromatic. Molossops planirostris showed conspicuous CH blocks in the pericentromeric regions of the pairs 4, 5, 8, 15, 16 and in the short arm of the X chromosome, while the Y did not present any CH block. Pretreated slides for C-banding stained with DAPI (CB-DAPI) revealed a similar pattern of C-banding (CBG) for these species. Sequential staining (AgNO3/CMA3/DAPI) in M. planirostris showed that the nucleolus organizer regions (NORs) are weakly CMA3 positive and DAPI negative. In the three species, triple staining with CMA3/DA/DAPI revealed R-banding with CMA3 and uniform staining with DAPI. The ribosomal cistrons detected by FISH were present only in the pair 5 in both species of Molossus, and in two pairs of medium sized chromosomes (pairs 9 and 10) of Molossops planirostris. The results obtained by FISH, compared with those by AgNO3 staining, indicated that all NORs in these species are transcriptionally active.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética/CCB, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Cidade Universitária, Recife, PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cleide
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Leite-Silva
authors.forename: Neide
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: Valéria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fagundes
authors.forename: Yatiyo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yonenaga-Yassuda
authors.forename: Maria José
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: de Souza
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002503:Centromere / Q000737:chemistry; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000235:genetics*; D002871:Chromosome Banding; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006570:Heterochromatin / Q000235:genetics; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods*; D007621:Karyotyping / Q000379:methods; D009697:Nucleolus Organizer Region / Q000235:genetics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016622:Silver Staining
chemical_list: D006570:Heterochromatin