Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on June 30, 2005
Journal of Heredity 2005 96(5):485-493; doi:10.1093/jhered/esi080
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Genome Sizes in Afrotheria, Xenarthra, Euarchontoglires, and Laurasiatheria
From the Laboratorio di Biologia dello Sviluppo e Centro di Eccellenza di Biologia Applicata, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy (Redi and Garagna); Windmühlenberg 6, Langwedel, Germany (Zacharias); Instituto de Biologia Cellular, Centro de Investigaciones en Reproduccion, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Merani); Departamento de Estudios Ambientales, Universidad Simon Bolivar, Caracas, Venezuela (Oliveira-Miranda and Aguilera); Dipartimento di Medicina Sperimentale, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy (Zuccotti); and Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Roma, Italy (Capanna)
Address correspondence to C. A. Redi at the address above, or e-mail: carloalberto.redi{at}unipv.it.
Topical literature and Web site databases provide genome sizes for
4,000 animal species, invertebrates and vertebrates, 330 of which are mammals. We provide the genome size for 67 mammalian species, including 51 never reported before. Knowledge of genome size facilitates sequencing projects. The data presented here encompassed 5 Metatheria (order Didelphimorphia) and 62 Eutheria: 15 Xenarthra, 24 Euarchontoglires (Rodentia), as well as 23 Laurasiatheria (22 Chiroptera and 1 species from Perissodactyla). Already available karyotypes supplement the haploid nuclear DNA contents of the respective species. Thus, we established the first comprehensive set of genome size measurements for 15 Xenarthra species (armadillos) and for 12 house-mouse species; each group was previously represented by only one species. The Xenarthra exhibited much larger genomes than the modal 3 pg DNA known for mammals. Within the genus Mus, genome sizes varied between 2.98 pg and 3.68 pg. The 22 bat species we measured support the low 2.63 pg modal value for Chiroptera. In general, the genomes of Euarchontoglires and Laurasiatheria were found being smaller than those of (Afrotheria and) Xenarthra. Interspecific variation in genome sizes is discussed with particular attention to repetitive elements, which probably promoted the adaptation of extant mammals to their environment.
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