Evolução cromossômica em Erythrinus erythrinus (Characiformes, Erythrinidae). Citogenética comparativa entre cariomorfos

Abstract

Erythrinidae is a relatively small Characiformes fish family, but widely distributed in the Neotropics. This family comprises only three genera: Hoplias, Hoplerythrinus and Erythrinus, all endemic to Central and South Americas. It is characterized by a divergent karyotype evolution and offers excellent opportunities for analyzing evolutionary events concerning the differentiation of the karyotype as a whole, as well as of the sex chromosome systems. In this sense, the species Erythrinus erythrinus presents four karyomorphs (A-D), in which homomorphic or heteromorphic sex chromosomes can be found. The main purpose of this study was to analyze the chromosomal differentiation among karyomorphs of E. erythrinus and their evolutionary relationships, using both conventional cytogenetic methods and the chromosomal mapping of repetitive DNAs sequences by FISH. The data showed the occurrence of small supernumerary chromosomes which are mitotically unstable, as well as useful molecular markers. Indeed, the mapping of several repetitive DNA sequences highlighted unique or shared features among the karyomorphs, indicating their evolutionary differentiation. The data also reinforce that distinct populations from karyomorph A behave as an evolutionary unit despite their wide geographic distribution. In turn, although the karyomorphs C and D share several karyotypic characters, they present specific molecular markers indicating their distinct evolutionary paths. Even though that morphological differentiations are not easily detectable among the karyomorphs, the set of the chromosomal features strongly corroborate that E. erythrinus belongs to a species complex.