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Chromatin Diminution and Chromosome Elimination in Hagfishes

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The Biology of Hagfishes

Summary

Morphological analyses of mitotic and meiotic chromosomes were performed in hagfish species. The kinetochores in both types of chromosomes appeared as a three-layered structure along the surfaces of chromosomes (12–50% of the length of the chromosome) without any constriction. There are no similar reports at present in other vertebrates with long kinetochores.

The cytogenetic examination of hagfish species (Eptatretus okinoseanus, E. burgeri, Paramyxine atami and Myxine garmani from Japan, E. stoutii from Canada, E. cirrhatus from New Zealand, P. sheni from Taiwan, and M. glutinosa from Sweden) revealed differences in chromosome number between germ cells (spermatogonia) and somatic cells (liver, blood, gill and kidney). The differences in chromosome number between spermatogonia (48, 54, 54–62, 72, 80, 52, 48, 66–96, 44 and 16) and somatic cells (34, 34, 34, 34, 34, 36, 34, 34, 28 and 14) were 14, 20, 20–28, 38, 46, 16, 14, 32–62, 16 and 2 in E. stoutii, E. okinoseanus type A, E. okinoseanus type B, E. cirrhatus type A and E. cirrhatus type B, E. burgeri, P. atami, P. sheni, M. glutinosa, and M. garmani, respectively. The percentage of DNA decrease in presumptive somatic cells averaged 52.8% (E. stoutii), 44.2% (E. okinoseanus type A), 49.4–57.7% (E. okinoseanus type B), 48.7% (E. cirrhatus type A) and 54.6% (E. cirrhatus type B), 20.9% (E. burgeri), 40.0% (P. atami), 70.8–74.5% (P. sheni), 43.5% (M. glutinosa) and 29.8% (M. garmani). These results clearly indicate that chromosome elimination takes place during early cleavage in these eight species of Myxinidae, except in germ line cells.

C-banding of metaphase chromosome preparations of germ line and somatic cells revealed that the C-band-positive chromatin in the somatic cells had been almost completely eliminated. Two germ line-restricted DNA-families (174 and 85 bp long) in E. okinoseanus were isolated. They are highly and tandemly repeated independently. These two account for 19% of the total eliminated DNA in E. okinoseanus type A and are located on several C-band positive, small chromosomes that are limited to germ cells.

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Authors
  1. Sei-ichi Kohno
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  2. Souichirou Kubota
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  3. Yasuharu Nakai
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Kohno, Si., Kubota, S., Nakai, Y. (1998). Chromatin Diminution and Chromosome Elimination in Hagfishes. In: The Biology of Hagfishes. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5834-3_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-5834-3_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-6465-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-5834-3

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