Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on April 5, 2006
Journal of Heredity 2006 97(3):303-306; doi:10.1093/jhered/esj033
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brief Communications |
G-Banded Karyotype and Ideogram for the North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis)
From the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Box 100245 University of Florida Health Science Center, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610 (Pause and McGuire); the Sirenia Project, Florida Integrated Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 2201 N.W. 40th Terrace, Gainesville, FL 32605 (Bonde); and the University of Florida Cytogenetics Laboratory, Division of Genetics, Department of Pediatrics, Box 100296 UFHSC, Gainesville, FL 32610 (Zori and Gray)
Address correspondence to B. A. Gray at the address above, or e-mail: grayba{at}peds.ufl.edu.
Published cytogenetic data for extant cetacean species remain incomplete. In a review of the literature, we found karyotypic information for 6 of the 13 tentatively recognized species of the suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales). Among those yet to be described is the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Herein, we describe and propose a first-generation G-banded karyotype and ideogram for this species (2n = 42), obtained from peripheral blood chromosome preparations from a stranded male calf. This information may prove useful for future genetic mapping projects and for interspecific and intraspecific genomic comparisons by techniques such as zoo-FISH.