The 14/15 association as a paradigmatic example of tracing karyotype evolution in New World monkeys

Abstract

Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), especially chromosome painting, has been extensively exploited in the phylogenetic reconstruction of primate evolution. Although chromosome painting is a key method to map translocations, it is not effective in detecting chromosome inversions, which may be up to four times more frequent than other chromosomal rearrangements. BAC-FISH instead can economically delineate marker order and reveal intrachromosomal rearrangements. However, up to now, BAC-FISH was rarely used to study the chromosomes of New World monkeys partly due to technical difficulties. In this paper, we used BAC-FISH to disentangle the complex evolutionary history of the ancestral 14/15 association in NWMs, beginning from the squirrel monkey (Saimiri boliviensis). To improve the hybridization efficiency of BAC-FISH in NWMs, we "translated" the human BACs into Callithrix jacchus (CJA) BACs, which yielded much higher hybridization efficiencies on other NWM species than human BACs. Our results disclosed 14 synteny blocks in squirrel monkeys, 7 more than with chromosome painting. We then applied a subset of CJA BACs on six other NWM species. The comparison of the hybridization pattern of these species contained phylogenetic information to discriminate evolutionary relationships. Notably Aotus was found to share an inversion with Callithrix, thus definitely assigning the genus Aotus to Cebidae. The present study can be seen as a paradigmatic approach to investigate the phylogenetics of NWMs by molecular cytogenetics.

Chromosome Painting in Cercopithecus petaurista (Schreber, 1774) Compared to Other Monkeys of the Cercopithecini Tribe (Catarrhini, Primates)

“…This evidence is supported by what is shown in the other species here analyzed, where the 14/15 syntenic association is present and human probe 14 is split into two fragments. The different size of human synteny 14 (in association with synteny 15) in the species analyzed indicates that the fissions presumably occurred with different breakpoints and are consistent with the high level of rearrangements previously shown in other primate taxa [ 49 , 50 ]. Human probe 15 can also be found in a single block or split into two blocks in the analyzed taxa ( Table 1 ).…”

Multiple intrasyntenic rearrangements and rapid speciation in voles

“…Unfortunately, different approaches (bioinformatics, cytogenetics) often provide conflicting results about the number and types of rearrangements. In some taxa, it was shown that intrachromosomal rearrangements are more frequent than interchromosomal rearrangements 31 , 35 , 36 . Notably, the contribution of intrachromosomal rearrangements was more significant in rapidly evolving groups.…”

Co-Opted Megasatellite DNA Drives Evolution of Secondary Night Vision in Azara's Owl Monkey

“…Materials from another species ( Aotus lemurinus ) were also used in the present study for confirmation of the results obtained from A. azarae . The cell line of A. lemurinus was obtained from the Foundation Biomedical Primate Research Center, the Netherlands as previously reported ( Capozzi et al 2016 ).…”