title: Characterization of ancestral chromosome fusion points in the Indian muntjac deer.
abstract: Tandem fusion, a rare evolutionary chromosome rearrangement, has occurred extensively in muntjac karyotypic evolution, leading to an extreme fusion karyotype of 6/7 (female/male) chromosomes in the Indian muntjac. These fusion chromosomes contain numerous ancestral chromosomal break and fusion points. Here, we designed a composite polymerase chain reaction (PCR) strategy which recovered DNA fragments that contained telomere and muntjac satellite DNA sequence repeats. Nested PCR confirmed the specificity of the products. Two-color fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with the repetitive sequences obtained and T2AG3 telomere probes showed co-localization of satellite and telomere sequences in Indian muntjac chromosomes. Adjacent telomere and muntjac satellite sequences were also seen by fiber FISH. These data lend support to the involvement of telomere and GC-rich satellite DNA sequences during muntjac chromosome fusions.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik, Ihnestrasse 73, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Harry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Scherthan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002871:Chromosome Banding; D019457:Chromosome Breakage / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics*; D015342:DNA Probes; D004276:DNA, Satellite / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D018668:Muntjacs / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015342:DNA Probes; D004276:DNA, Satellite