Research Article |
Corresponding author: Shirlei Maria Recco-Pimentel ( shirlei@unicamp.br ) Academic editor: Inna Kuznetsova
© 2016 Stenio Eder Vittorazzi, Luciana Bolsoni Lourenço, Mirco Solé, Renato Gomes Faria, Shirlei Maria Recco-Pimentel.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Vittorazzi SE, Lourenço LB, Solé M, Faria RG, Recco-Pimentel SM (2016) Chromosomal analysis of Physalaemus kroyeri and Physalaemus cicada (Anura, Leptodactylidae). Comparative Cytogenetics 10(2): 311-323. https://doi.org/10.3897/CompCytogen.v10i2.9319
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All the species of Physalaemus Fitzinger, 1826 karyotyped up until now have been classified as 2n = 22. The species of the P. cuvieri group analyzed by C-banding present a block of heterochromatin in the interstitial region of the short arm of pair 5. Physalaemus cicada Bokermann, 1966 has been considered to be a member of the P. cuvieri species group, although its interspecific phylogenetic relationships remain unknown. The PcP190 satellite DNA has been mapped on the chromosomes of most of the species of the P. cuvieri group. For two species, P. cicada and P. kroyeri (Reinhardt & Lütken, 1862), however, only the chromosome number and morphology are known. Given this, the objective of the present study was to analyze the chromosomes of P. cicada and P. kroyeri, primarily by C-banding and PcP190 mapping. The results indicate that P. kroyeri and P. cicada have similar karyotypes, which were typical of Physalaemus. In both species, the NORs are located on the long arm of pair 8, and the C-banding indicated that, among other features, P. kroyeri has the interstitial band on chromosome 5, which is however absent in P. cicada. Even so, a number of telomeric bands were observed in P. cicada. The mapping of the PcP190 satellite DNA highlighted areas of the centromeric region of the chromosomes of pair 1 in both species, although in P. kroyeri, heteromorphism was also observed in pair 3. The cytogenetic evidence does not support the inclusion of P. cicada in the P. cuvieri group. In the case of P. kroyeri, the interstitial band on pair 5 is consistent with the existence of a cytogenetic synapomorphy in the P. cuvieri species group.
NOR, C Banding, PcP190 satDNA
The family Leptodactylidae is made up of three subfamilies, the Leptodactylinae, Paratelmatobiinae and Leiuperinae (
All the Physalaemus species karyotyped up until the present time show 2n = 22 (
For Physalaemus cicada and P. kroyeri, the available cytogenetic data are restricted to the chromosome number and morphology (
All the individuals belonging to two species included in our analyses were deposited in the Museum of Zoology “Professor Adão José Cardoso” of the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (
The animals were collected with permission of the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (IBAMA/SISBIO – Process number 10678–2, 20336–1 and 33133–1). For the subsequent techniques, all samples were extracted from euthanized specimens using anesthetic application to the skin (5% Lidocaine) to minimize animal suffering, according to recommendations of the Herpetological Animal Care and Use Committee (HACC) of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (available in http://www.asih.org), and approved by SISBIO/Institute Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade as a condition for the concession license.
The metaphases were obtained from intestinal cells of the specimens treated with 2% colchicine for at least 4 hours (following
The genomic DNA of Physalaemus kroyeri and P. cicada was extracted from samples macerated in TNES buffer (50 mM Tris pH 7.5; 400 mM NaCl; 20 mM EDTA; and 0.5% SDS), following
To sequence the fragments, samples of the amplified PCR products were treated with a BigDye Terminator kit (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, California, USA). After precipitation and drying, the products of this reaction were resuspended in loading dye (1:5 Blue-Dextran-EDTA/Formamide), denatured for 3 minutes at 94°C and analyzed in an ABI 3730XL automatic sequencer.
All the cloned fragments were sequenced, although for the comparative analyses, only the complete PcP190 sequences were used. It is important to note that the partial units were not noticeably different in their composition from the complete sequences.
The labeling of the isolated PcP190 satellite DNA probes used in this analysis was based on PCR amplification in the presence of Digoxigenin-11-dUTP with a DIG Probe Synthesis PCR (Roche, Pensberg, Bavaria, Germany). The probes were mixed with salmon DNA (1 ng/μL of probe) and precipitated with ethanol. All the resulting DNA was dissolved in a hybridization buffer at pH 7 composed of deionized formamide (50%), 2x SSC, phosphate buffer (40 mM), Denhardt’s solution, SDS (1%) and dextran sulfate (10%).
The hybridization method used was that described by
The diploid number of Physalaemus kroyeri is 2n = 22, with metacentric pairs 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, and 11, submetacentric pairs 4, 7, 8 and 10, and pair 3 being subtelocentric (Figure
Morphometry of the karyotypes of Physalaemus kroyeri and Physalaemus cicada. NC: number of the chromosome; CI: centromeric index; AR: arm ratio; CC: chromosomal classification (Green and Session 1991). A total of 10 karyotypes were analyzed in each species.
P. kroyeri | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
NC | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
CI | 0.45 | 0.39 | 0.24 | 0.26 | 0.47 | 0.44 | 0.32 | 0.32 | 0.42 | 0.34 | 0.42 |
AR | 1.15 | 1.5 | 3.11 | 2.8 | 1.11 | 1.22 | 2.09 | 2.01 | 1.33 | 1.94 | 1.34 |
CC | M | M | ST | SM | M | M | SM | SM | M | SM | M |
P. cicada | |||||||||||
NC | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 |
CI | 0.45 | 0.39 | 0.23 | 0.27 | 0.44 | 0.43 | 0.3 | 0.29 | 0.42 | 0.37 | 0.4 |
AR | 1.19 | 1.51 | 3.13 | 2.8 | 1.23 | 1.27 | 2.28 | 2.43 | 1.37 | 1.62 | 1.48 |
CC | M | M | ST | SM | M | M | SM | SM | M | M | M |
Areas of heterochromatin were detected in the centromeric regions of all the chromosomes, in the pericentromeric region of the long arm of the chromosomes of pair 6, adjacent to the NOR of the chromosomes of pair 8, and interstitially on one of the arms of the metacentric chromosomes of pair 5 (Figure
a Karyotype of Physalaemus kroyeri stained with Giemsa. The arrowhead indicates the secondary constriction b Pair 8 showing NOR detected by the Ag-NOR method, in the homozygote (8a) and heterozygote (8b) forms c C-banding stained with Giemsa and d C-banding stained with DAPI. Highlighted in (d), pair 8 stained with mithramycin. In c and d, the arrows indicate the interstitial heterochromatic bands. Scale bar: 5 μm.
Physalaemus cicada has a diploid number of 2n = 22, with metacentric pairs 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11, submetacentric pairs 4, 7 and 8, and one subtelocentric pair, pair 3 (Figure
a Karyotype of Physalaemus cicada stained with Giemsa. The arrowhead indicates the secondary constriction in pair 8, highlighting the NOR in pair 8 b C-banding of the karyotype, highlighting the proximal C band in pair 2 c C-banding followed by DAPI staining, highlighting pair 8 stained with mithramycin. In b and c, the arrows indicate the interstitial and pericentromeric heterochromatic bands. Scale bar: 5 μm.
Regions of constitutive heterochromatin were detected in the centromeres of all the chromosomes, in the proximal region of the long arm of the chromosomes of pair 2, in the pericentromeric region of the long arm of the chromosomes of pair 4, in the telomeric regions of both arms of the chromosomes of pairs 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7, and a similar pattern, but restricted to the long arms of pairs 3, 4, 9, 10 and 11 (Figure
After cloning, sequencing, and the search for similar sequences using the BLASTn tool in GenBank, it was possible to conclude that the sequences obtained with the primers P190F and P190R belong to the PcP190 satellite DNA family, which was first identified in Physalaemus cuvieri (
It was possible to clone three fragments of the PcP190 satellite DNA of Physalaemus kroyeri, all of which contain a complete repeat unit of this satellite DNA, of 190 bps (Figure
In the karyotype of Physalaemus kroyeri, the PcP190 satellite DNA was detected in the centromeric region of pair 1. In two of the three individuals analyzed, in addition, the PcP190 was also detected in the centromeric region of one of the chromosomes of pair 3 (Figure
The number and morphology of the chromosomes observed in the karyotypes of Physalaemus kroyeri and P. cicada were the same as those found by
Comparing the karyotypes of Physalaemus kroyeri and P. cicada with one another and the karyotypes described for other Physalaemus species, it is possible to infer homologies in the first seven pairs of chromosomes. This is because the morphology of pairs 1–7 is highly similar in the karyotypes analyzed, despite some differences in size (e.g., P. albonotatus in
In the karyotype of Physalaemus kroyeri, the NOR is located interstitially on the long arm of the chromosomes of pair 8, a situation also observed in P. albifrons (
The interstitial C band in the metacentric pair 5 is present in all the species of the Physalaemus cuvieri group karyotyped up until now, which
While the chromosome pair 5 of Physalaemus kroyeri is classified morphologically as metacentric, the arm on which the interstitial band is located is slightly larger, which calls into question the 5p position of this band in the other species of the P. cuvieri group. This difference may have resulted from some structural modification of the chromosome, such as a pericentric inversion, amplification of part of this arm, or a deletion on the opposite arm. Whatever the case, the difference in the position of this interstitial band does not alter its status as a chromosomal synapomorphy in the P. cuvieri group.
The absence of this interstitial band of heterochromatin on chromosome 5 in the karyotype of Physalaemus cicada, keeps the interpecific relationships of this species in doubt. While P. cicada has been considered to be a member of the P. cuvieri group, based on its morphological similarities (
It was possible to recognize PcP190 satellite DNA in both Physalaemus kroyeri and P. cicada, as found in a number of other Physalaemus species, such as P. cuvieri, P. centralis, P. albonotatus, P. albifrons, P. ephippifer, P. marmoratus and P. nattereri (Steindachner, 1863), as well as members of other leptodactylid genera, such as Pleurodema diplolister (Peters, 1870), Leptodactylus latrans (Steffen, 1815) and Crossodactylus gaudichaudii Duméril & Bibron, 1841 (
In Physalaemus cicada, both the sequences and the location of the PcP190 in the karyotype provide interesting insights into the comparison of this species with those of the P. cuvieri group. On average, the PcP190 of the species of this group are 90% similar to one another (
The interstitial heterochromatic band on the metacentric chromosome 5, considered to be a cytogenetic synapomorphy of the Physalaemus cuvieri species group was found in P. kroyeri. In contrast, this marker was absent in P. cicada, which did not support the inclusion of P. cicada in the P. cuvieri species group.
SEV developed the study, collected P. kroyeri and P. cicada, ran the analyses and drafted the manuscript. MS collected P. kroyeri and RGF collected P. cicada, both these authors revised the manuscript. SMRP and LBL developed and coordinated the study and revised the manuscript.
We are grateful to Daniel Pacheco Bruschi for helping collect P. cicada from Limoeiro. We thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES-PROAP), the Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, 2010/11300-7), and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, 620163/2008-9) for financial support. We also thank the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis and the Secretaria de Estado do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos de Sergipe for permission to collect specimens.