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Karyotypic analysis of the hermaphroditic viviparous polychaete, Hediste limnicola (Polychaeta: Nereididae): possibility of sex chromosome degeneration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
Abstract
Karyotypes of the hermaphroditic polychaete Hediste limnicola were examined using an air-drying method and genetic material prepared from regenerating tail and newborn juveniles. Materials were obtained from a lineage of cultured worms originating from Watsonville Slough (California, USA) and maintained for six years in the laboratory. Giemsa-stained preparations were analysed by a computer-assisted image-analysing system for the identification of each chromosome pair. A diploid chromosome number of 26 was obtained from well-spread metaphase chromosomes of mitotic cells, consisting of metacentric (N = 11), submetacentric (N = 1) and telocentric (N = 1) chromosomes. It is possible that hermaphroditism in this species evolved through loss of a pair of sex chromosomes, which are present in closely related congeneric species.
Keywords
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 90 , Issue 3 , May 2010 , pp. 613 - 616
- Copyright
- Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009
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