Abstract
Nuclear DNA amounts are determined in 16 species and the C-banding patterns for 19 species of rodents. A list of rodent DNA amounts is compiled. The fraction of heterochromatin in the genome is determined as the length of C-banded chromosome material relative to the total karyotype length. Among all rodents, heterochromatin amounts tend to be larger in the larger genomes. However, this relationship is not exact and does not hold true for individual genera. In general the notion of a basic rodent genome of defined size to which various amounts of heterochromatin have been added is untenable.
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Gamperl, R., Ehmann, C. & Bachmann, K. Genome size and heterochromatin variation in rodents. Genetica 58, 199–212 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128014
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00128014