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Abstract
The house mouse, Mus musculus, is known for its highly conserved morphology and chromosomal structure, but some chromosomal characters have been recognized as accurate taxonomic markers in this species, e.g. centromeric heterochromatin, which is useful to identify the taxonomic status of house mouse. In this study, comprehensive cytogenetic surveys have been carried out in five to eighteen specimens of house mouse from each locality of Iran using centromeric heterochromatin banding (C-banding). C-banding was performed on the karyotype, and the centromeric heterochromatin region size (CHRs) was calculated using karyotype analysis software. Results indicated that intra- and inter- population variation of C-band positive heterochromatin ranged from very large CHRs to small CHRs. Generally, chromosomes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 19 showed high variability in their CHRs whereas chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 13, 17, 18 and X had low variability in CHRs. Chromosome 4 had the largest CHRs in all populations and chromosomes 15, 17 and 19 showed the smallest CHRs. The entire Y-chromosome was C-band positive with slight population differences in staining intensity. Based on the C-banding results, four common banded chromosomal patterns were recognized in the populations of the Iranian house mouse. First, the largest CHRs was found in Zahedan and Zabol populations in all autosomes. Second, the smallest CHRs was observed in the chromosomes of subspecies M. musculus musculus from northeastern Iran. Third, in the specimens of subspecies Mus musculus castaneus, patterns of CHRs among the chromosomes was completely heterogeneous: some had large CHRs while others had very small CHRs. Fourth, small CHRs was observed in all chromosomes of subspecies Mus musculus domesticus from western and southern Iran, with the exception of two or three chromosomes, which had large CHRs.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Dr M. Malekzadeh and Dr J. Davidian-Britton for their generous help and M. Mohammadyari, M. Mahmoodi, M. Habbiby, A. Khajea and A. Khosravi for their efforts in collecting the specimens.