Cytotaxonomic analysis of species of the genera Mus, Apodemus and Rattus in Azerbaijan

Abstract

The methods of G-, C-and Ag-staining of chromosomes and restaining of the same preparations by various techni ues were used for karyological studies of mice and rats in Azerbaijan. Despite the seemingly stazle karyoty es (2n = 40, 2n = 48 respecitively) respresentatives of the genera Mus and Apodemus exhibite: karyotypic differences indicating that the traditional s ecies in either case were represented by various forms. Two different cytotypes showing the dikerentiation of two taxonomic groups (presumably species) were observed in Transcaucasian Mus. In the resent paper they are termed as "musculus-" and "abbotti"-cytotypes. Three karyoty ic forms [aving various locations of NOR's were established in the subgenus Sylvimus of $e genus Apodemus. At the same time we failed to obtain the cytogenetic proof of presence of the European cytotype of the yellow-necked mouse (A odemus avicollis) in this region. This result automatically removes the problem of inters ecilc hybricfzation of A . sylwaticus and A. flavicollis, which was repeatedly discussed in the Eterature. The cytogenetic study of a Transcaucasian population revealed a system of intraspecific karyotype variation in A. agrurius. For the intraspecific chromosomal polymorphism observed in the chromosome pairs 3, 11 and 12 of Rattus norvegicus our data support the view that variations of heterochromatic and nucleolus organizing regions rather than pericentric inversions are responsible for it. Wild rats (R. rattus) from an endemic Talysh population showed the normal 38-chromosome karyotype.

Chromosome polymorphism in Bulgarian populations of the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius Pallas 1771)

“…The established karyotype of the fi eld mouse in Bulgaria (2n=48+1В) does not differ from the one described for the Palearctic area of the species in Yugoslavia (Kral, 1970(Kral, , 1972Soldatović et al, 1971Soldatović et al, , 1975Gamperl et al, 1982), Greece (Brittan-Davidian et al, 1991;Giagia et al, 1985), Poland, Czechoslovakia, (Soldatović et al, 1975), Hungary (Zima, Kral, 1984), Estonia (Boeskorov et al, 1995), Caucasus (Nadjafova, 1989;Bulatova et al, 1991), East Siberia (Kral, 1971, the Far East, the Primorski region (Kral, 1971;Bekasova et al, 1980), China (Wang et al, 1993), and Korea (Makino, 1951;Kang et al, 1974;Koh, 1982Koh, , 1987a. Additional chromosomes in the fi eld mouse have only been established in the Far East and Russian populations so far (Kartavtseva, 1994;Kartavtseva, Pavlenko, 2000).…”

“…In the striped fi eld mice from Estonia, Russia, the Ukraine, Dagestan, North Ossetia (Boeskorov et al, 1995), and Azerbaijan (Bulatova et al, 1991), the NORs are localized in 8 chromosomes (4 pairs): in the 4 large acrocentric autosomes the localization is telomeric, and in the 4 small ones, it is pericentromeric. Only the species on the Estonian island Saaremaa have two pericentromeric NORs less, which, according to authors (Boeskorov et al, 1995), is, possibly, evidence for their earlier geographic isolation from the continental populations.…”

“…The variability in the morphology of the large autosomes from the fi rst and second pairs (variant ST/A) has been described for species in Korea (Kang, Koh, 1976;Koh, 1982), Azerbaijan (Bulatova et al, 1991), and the Far East (Kartavtseva, 2002). The appearance of short arms in the last study can be described with an increase in the amount of heterochromatin in the centromeric region of the largest acrocentric chromosome.…”

“…1). Preparations of chromosomes from bone marrow cells were made using a conventional technique (Rothfels, Siminovitch, 1958), and differential G-, C-, and NOR-staining was performed via standard methods (Sumner, 1972;Pellicсiari et al, 1990;Bulatova et al, 1991;Seabright, 1971).…”