Abstract
Earlier, in an integral genetic study, the Asian and European races were distinguished within the species Sylvaemus uralensis (pygmy wood mouse) and the European race was divided into the East European and South European forms. Each of these groups differed from the others, in particular, in the quantity of the centromeric heterochromatin in karyotypes of the animals. To establish the pattern of its changes in S. uralensis, in the present study the DNA content in splenocyte nuclei in all races and forms of pygmy wood mice was assessed using DNA flow cytometry. The heterochromatin amount in karyotypes and genome size were shown to be correlated. The East European chromosomal race of S. uralensis (Central Chernozem and Non-Chernozem regions of Russia, Crimea Peninsula, Middle Volga region, and Southern Ural) and the Asian race of this species (East Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and East Turkmenistan), which have respectively the highest and the lowest amounts of centromeric heterochromatin in the karyotype, exhibit the greatest difference in the DNA content in the genome. On average, the difference is approximately 8% in males and 6.7% in females; in both cases, the ranges of variability were distinctly different. Against the general background of the trait variation, the Asian race, whose members have the smallest DNA amount in their cells, looks homogeneous. The genome of the South European chromosomal form of S. uralensis (Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Carpathians, and Balkan Peninsula), which exhibits an intermediate content of the centromeric heterochromatin in the karyotype, is smaller that the genome of the East European race (by 3.2% in the group of males and by 1.9%, in the group of females), but larger than that of the Asian race (by 5% in either sex). Thus, the variability of size of centromeric C-blocks in pygmy wood mouse is likely to be associated with elimination (or, conversely, an increase in the amount) of the genetically inert chromatin. It is suggested that a significant contribution to the variability of genome size in S. uralensis is made by heterochromosomes, or, more precisely, their variable regions, which seem to be largely heterochromatic.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
REFERENCES
Ford, C.E. and Hamerton, J.L., A Colchicine, Hypotonic Citrate, Squash Sequence for Mammalian Chromosomes, Stain Technol., 1956, vol. 31, no.6, pp. 247–251.
Sumner, A.T., A Simple Technique for Demonstrating Centromeric Heterochromatin, Exp. Cell Res., 1972, vol. 75, pp. 304–306.
Bogdanov, A.S., Chromosome Differentiation of the Pygmy Wood Mouse Sylvaemus uralensis Populations in the Eastern Part of Its Range, Entomol. Rev., 2001, vol. 81,suppl., no. 2, pp. 303–314.
Orlov, V.N., Kozlovskii, A.I., Nadzhafova, R.S., and Bulatova, N.Sh., Chromosome Diagnosis and the Place of Genetic Taxa in the Evolutionary Classification of Wood Mice of the Subgenus Sylvaemus (Apodemus, Muridae, Rodentia) of Europe, Zool. Zh., 1996, vol. 75, no.1, pp. 88–102.
Orlov, V.N., Bulatova, N.Sh., Nadjafova, R.S., and Kozlovsky, A.I., Evolutionary Classification of European Wood Mice of the Subgenus Sylvaemus Based on Allozyme and Chromosome Data, Bonner Zool. Beitrage, 1996, vol. 46, nos.1–4, pp. 191–202.
Chelomina, G.N., Pavlenko, M.V., Kartavtseva, I.V., et al., Genetic Differentiation of Caucasian Wood Mice: Comparison of Isozymic, Chromosomal, and Molecular Divergence, Rus. J. Genet., 1998, vol. 34, no.2, pp. 151–162.
Kartavtseva, I.V., Kariosistematika lesnykh i polevykh myshei (Rodentia: Muridae) (Karyotaxonomy of Wood and Field Mice (Rodentia: Muridae)), Vladivostok: Dal'nauka, 2002.
Mezhzherin, S.V., Revision of Mice of the Genus Apodemys (Rodentia, Muridae) from Northern Eurasia, Vestn. Zool., 1997, vol. 31, no.4, pp. 29–41.
Bogdanov, A.S., Allozyme Variation of the Pygmy Wood Mouse Sylvaemus uralensis (Rodentia, Muridae) and Estimation of the Divergence of its Chromosome Forms, Rus. J. Genet., 2004, vol. 40, no.8, pp. 897–909.
Baskevich, M.I. and Malygin, V.M., Karyotype As a Marker of Inter-and Intraspecific Variation in Rodent Carriers of Natural Focal Infections in the Caucasian Region, Teriol. Issled., 2003, no. 4, pp. 5–12.
Baskevich, M.I., Potapov, S.G., Okulova, N.M., et al., Comparison of Spermatozoa among Six Mouse Species of the Genus Apodemus (Rodentia, Muridae) from Eastern Europe and Trans-Caucasus, Zool. Zh., 2004, vol. 83, no.6, pp. 725–732.
Baskevich, M.I., Potapov, S.G., Okulova, N.M., and Balakirev, A.E., Diagnosis of Mice of the Genus Apodemus (Rodentia, Muridae) from the Western Region of the Great Caucasus under Conditions of Symbiotopy, Zool. Zh., 2004, vol. 83, no.10, pp. 1261–1269.
Chelomina, G.N., Bogdanov, A.S., and Suzuki, Kh., Molecular Genetic Typing and Taxonomic Diagnosis of Eastern Populations of Pygmy Wood Mouse Sylvaemus uralensis Pallas, 1811: Data of RAPD-PCR Analysis, in Sistematika i filogeniya gryzunov i zaitseobraznykh: Sbornik statei (Systematics and Phylogeny of Rodents and Hares: A Collection of Articles), Moscow, 2000, pp. 179–181.
Vinogradov, A.E., Rozanov, Yu.M., Tsaune, I.A., and Borkin, L.Ya., Elimination of One of the Parental Genomes before Premeiotic DNA Synthesis in the Hybridogenic Species Rana esculenta, Tsitologiya, 1988, vol. 30, no.6, pp. 691–698.
Reutter, B.A., Nova, P., Vogel, P., and Zima, J., Karyotypic Variation between Wood Mouse Species: Banded Chromosomes of Apodemus alpicola and A. microps, Acta Theriol., 2001, vol. 46, no.4, pp. 353–362.
Lakin, G.F., Biometriya (Biometry), Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola, 1990.
Gmurman, V.E., Teoriya veroyatnostei i matematicheskaya statistika (Theory of Chances and Mathematical Statistics), Moscow: Vysshaya Shkola, 2004.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
__________
Translated from Genetika, Vol. 41, No. 10, 2005, pp. 1369–1376.
Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Bogdanov, Rozanov.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bogdanov, A.S., Rozanov, Y.M. Variability in Size of the Nuclear Genome in Pygmy Wood Mouse Sylvaemus uralensis (Rodentia, Muridae). Russ J Genet 41, 1123–1129 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11177-005-0209-3
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11177-005-0209-3