Abstract
The sibling species Anopheles atroparvus and Anopheles labranchiae are cytogenetically almost indistinguishable. The chromosome complement (2n = 6) consists of two pairs of autosomes and two heteromorphic sex chromosomes with largely homologous heterochromatic long arms. Treatment of chromosome preparations with the restriction endonucleases, Alu I, Hae III, Mbo I, Hpa II, revealed species-specific differences of the sex chromosome banding pattern. These differences involved both amount and location of digested heterochromatin. Heterochromatin heterogeneity and a high level of intraspecific polymorphism, undetected with standard banding techniques, were observed in both species. Quantitative heterochromatin differences between the sex chromosomes did not inhibit their pairing and chiasmata formation. The endonuclease Msp I, which cleaves the same target sequence as Hpa II, did not digest heterochromatic as well as euchromatic regions in both species: inhibition of cleavage by methylation of the target sequence or limited access of the enzyme to the target could be involved in this response.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
References
Baimai, V, and Traipakvasin, A. 1987. Intraspecific variation in the sex heterochromatin of species B of the Anopheles dims complex in Thailand. Genome, 29, 401–404.
Bianchi, N O, Vidal-Rioja, L, and Cleaver, J E. 1986. Direct visualization of the sites of DNA methylation in human, and mosquito chromosomes. Chromosoma, 94, 362–366.
Bonaccorsi, S, Santini, G, Gatti, M, Pimpinelli, S, and Coluzzi, M. 1980. Intraspecific polymorphism of sex chromosome heterochromatin in two species of the Anopheles gambiae complex. Chromosoma, 76, 57–64.
Bultmann, H, and Mezzanotte, R. 1987. Characterization and origin of extrachromosomal DNA granules in Sarcophaga bullata. J Cell Set, 88, 327–334.
Flavell, R B. 1982. Sequence amplification, deletion and rearrangement: major sources of variation during species divergence. In Dover, G. A. and Flavell, R. B. (eds)Genome Evolution, Academic Press, London, pp. 301–324.
Fraccaro, M, Laudani, U, Marchi, A, and Tiepolo, L. 1976. Karyotype, DNA replication and origin of sex chromosomes in Anopheles atroparvus. Chromosoma, 55, 27–36.
Frizzi, G. 1947. Cromosomi salivari in Anopheles maculipennis. Scientia Genet, 3, 67–79.
Gosalvez, J, Bella, J L, Lopez-Fernandez, C, and Mezzanotte, R. 1987. Correlation between constitutive heterochromatin and restriction enzyme resistant chromatin in Arcyptera tornosi (Orthoptera). Heredity, 59, 173–180.
Jayakar, S D, Laudani, U, and Marchi, A. 1982. An analysis of chiasmata frequencies in Anopheles atroparvus. Rend Sem Fac Sci Univ Cagliari, 52, 127–133.
John, B. 1981. Heterochromatin variation in natural populations. In Bennet, M. D., Bobrow, M. and Hewitt, G. M. (eds) Chromosome Today, 7, Allen & Unwin, London, pp. 128–137.
Jost, E, and Mameli, M. 1972. DNA content in nine species of Nematocera with special reference to the sibling species of the Anopheles maculipennis group and the Culex pipiens group. Chromosoma, 37, 201–208.
Kitzmiller, J B. 1967. Mosquito cytogenetics. In Wright, J. W. and Pal, R. (eds) Genetics of Insect Vectors of Diseases, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 133–150.
Lopez Fernandez, C, Gosalvez, J, Suja, J A, and Mezzanotte, R. 1988. Restriction endonuclease digestion of meiotic and mitotic chromosomes in Pyrgomorpha conica (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae). Genome, 30, 621–626.
Macgregor, H C, and Sessions, S K. 1986. The biological significance of variation in satellite DNA and heterochromatin in newts of the genus Triturus : an evolutionary perspective. Phil Trans R Soc Lond, B312, 243–260.
Maniatis, T, Fritsch, E F, and Sambrook, J. 1982. Molecular Cloning. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, p. 453.
Marchi, A, and Mezzanotte, R. 1988. Restriction endonuclease digestion and chromosome banding in the mosquito, Culiseta longiareolata (Diptera: Culicidae). Heredity, 60, 21–26.
McLain, D K, Rai, K S, and Fraser, M J. 1986. Intraspecific variation in the abundance of highly repeated DNA sequences in the Aedes scutellaris subgroup. Ann Ent Soc Amer, 79, 784–791.
McLain, D K, Rai, K S, and Fraser, M J. 1987. Intraspecific and interspecific variation in the sequence and abundance of highly repeated DNA among mosquitoes of the Aedes albopictus subgroup. Heredity, 58, 373–381.
Mezzanotte, R. 1986. The selective digestion of polytene and mitotic chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster by the Alu I and Hae III restriction endonucleases. Chromosoma, 93, 249–255.
Mezzanotte, R, and Ferrucci, L. 1978. Recognition of the sibling species Anopheles atroparvus (Van Thiel) and Anopheles labranchiae (Falleroni) (Diptera: Culicidae) on the basis of Q and C banding. Monitore Zool Ital, 12, 211–218.
Mazzanotte, R, Ferrucci, L, and Marchi, A. 1979. Y chromosome in the sibling species Anopheles atroparvus (Van Thiel, 1927) and A. labranchiae (Falleroni, 1926) (Diptera: Culicidae): differential behaviour of the short arm after acid-alkaine treatment and Coriphosphine-O staining. Experientia, 35, 312–313.
Mezzanotte, R, Ferrucci, L, Vanni, R, and Bianchi, U. 1983. Selective digestion of human metaphase chromosomes by Alu I restriction endonuclease. J Histochem Cytochem, 32, 553–556.
Mezzanotte, R, and Marchi, A. 1987. In situ digestion of Drosophila virilus polytene chromosomes by Alu I and Hae III restriction endonucleases. Genome, 29, 630–634.
Miller, D A, Choi, J C, and Miller, J O. 1983. Chromosome localization of highly repetitive human DNAs and amplified ribosomal DNA with restriction enzymes. Science, 219, 395–397.
Redfern, C P F. 1981. Satellite DNA of Anopheles stephensi Liston (Diptera: Culicidae). Chromosoma, 82, 561–581.
Tiepolo, L, Diaz, G, and Laudani, U. 1974. Differential DNA synthesis in homologous regions of hybrid polytenic chromosomes (Anopheles atroparvus x Anopheles labranchiae). Chromosoma, 45, 81–89.
Tiepolo, L, Fraccaro, M, Laudani, U, and Diaz, G. 1975. Homologous bands on the long arms of the X and Y chromosomes of Anopheles atroparvus. Chromosoma, 49, 371–374.
Vasantha, K, Subbarao, S K, Adak, T, and Sharma, V P. 1982. Karyotipic variations in Anopheles culicifacies complex. Indian J Malariol, 19, 27–32.
White, G B. 1980. Academic and applied aspects of mosquito cytogenetics. In Blackman, R. L., Hewitt, G. M. and Ashburner, M. (eds) Insect Cytogenetics, Blackwell Sci. Publ., Oxford, pp. 245–274.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Marchi, A., Mezzanotte, R. Inter- and intraspecific heterochromatin variation detected by restriction endonuclease digestion in two sibling species of the Anopheles maculipennis complex. Heredity 65, 135–142 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1990.80
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1990.80