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Figure 6 | Genome Biology

Figure 6

From: Comparative sequence analyses reveal sites of ancestral chromosomal fusions in the Indian muntjac genome

Figure 6

Evolutionary history of Indian muntjac chromosome fusion sites. A proposed model is shown tracing the evolutionary history of Indian muntjac IMFS1 and IMFS3 as well as the orthologous Chinese muntjac sequences CMTel1 and CMTel3. The hypothetical ancestral muntjac genome contained as many as 70 chromosomes, a small subset of which is shown on the left. There is evidence [18, 39] that Chinese muntjac chromosome 3 was derived from three fusion events involving ancestral chromosomes 3a-3d. Ancestral chromosomes 3d, 3c, 12, and 22 appeared to have fused in head-to-tail fusions to form the distal end of Indian muntjac chromosome 1p; note that ancestral chromosomes 3a and 3b fused with other chromosomes and are present elsewhere in the Indian muntjac genome [18, 39]. The chromosome fusion sites on Indian muntjac chromosomes contain telomeric repeats adjacent to satellite I sequences (Figures 2 and 3), consistent with sequential head-to-tail fusions of telocentric chromosomes. During these events the telomeric centromere of the 'head' chromosome (containing telomeric repeats and satellite II and IV sequences) becomes lost, and satellite I sequences become fused with telomeric repeats from the 'tail' chromosome.

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