title: Karyotypic evolution and phylogenetic relationships in the order Chiroptera as revealed by G-banding comparison and chromosome painting.
abstract: Bats are a unique but enigmatic group of mammals and have a world-wide distribution. The phylogenetic relationships of extant bats are far from being resolved. Here, we investigated the karyotypic relationships of representative species from four families of the order Chiroptera by comparative chromosome painting and banding. A complete set of painting probes derived from flow-sorted chromosomes of Myotis myotis (family Vespertilionidae) were hybridized onto metaphases of Cynopterus sphinx (2n = 34, family Pteropodidae), Rhinolophus sinicus (2n=36, family Rhinolophidae) and Aselliscus stoliczkanus (2n=30, family Hipposideridae) and delimited 27, 30 and 25 conserved chromosomal segments in the three genomes, respectively. The results substantiate that Robertsonian translocation is the main mode of chromosome evolution in the order Chiroptera, with extensive conservation of whole chromosomal arms. The use of M. myotis (2n=44) probes has enabled the integration of C. sphinx, R. sinicus and A. stoliczkanus chromosomes into the previously established comparative maps between human and Eonycteris spelaea (2n=36), Rhinolophus mehelyi (2n=58), Hipposideros larvatus (2n=32), and M. myotis. Our results provide the first cytogenetic signature rearrangement that supports the grouping of Pteropodidae and Rhinolophoidea in a common clade (i.e. Pteropodiformes or Yinpterochiroptera) and thus improve our understanding on the karyotypic relationships and genome phylogeny of these bat species.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, and Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650223, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ao
authors.forename: Xiuguang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Wenhui
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Nie
authors.forename: Xiaoming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jinhuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Weiting
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Yingxiang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Volleth
authors.forename: Fengtang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000235:genetics*; D002871:Chromosome Banding; D020223:Chromosome Painting; D033481:Chromosomes, Mammalian / Q000235:genetics; D020732:Cytogenetic Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D007621:Karyotyping; D010802:Phylogeny