Cytogenetic and Random Amplified Polymorphism Dna Analysis of Subspecies of Asian Elephants (Elephas Maximus)
A study was carried out to investigate the chromosome constitution of 3 subspecies of elephants from cultured lymphocytes; karyotypes were constructed according to standard procedure. Lymphocytes were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with a mitogen (phytohemagglutinin-PHA or pokeweed-PWM...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2005
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/6615/1/FPV_2005_9.pdf |
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| Summary: | A study was carried out to investigate the chromosome constitution of 3 subspecies of
elephants from cultured lymphocytes; karyotypes were constructed according to
standard procedure. Lymphocytes were cultured in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented
with a mitogen (phytohemagglutinin-PHA or pokeweed-PWM), penicillin- streptomycin
and bovine calf serum. The karyotype showed that the Asian elephant has a diploid
number (2n) of 56 and fundamental number (NF) of 66 in both male and female. The
autosomes comprised 6 pairs of submetacentric, 10 pairs of large acrocentric and the
remaining 11 pairs are characterized as small acrocentric. On the other hand, the sex
chromosomes consisted of the largest submetacentric X chromosome while the Y
chromosome is a small acrocentric.G-, C- and NORs bandings were carried out to assist the conventional banding. Gbanded
karyotypes of the three subspecies were identical as well as for the C- banded
karyotypes. NORs banding revealed active nucleolar organizer regions chromosomes 2,
4, 13 and 17. These results were the first banded karyotypes established for the Asian
elephants.
Investigations of DNA polymorphisms using RAPD technique provided identical
information between the three subspecies. Blood samples from three subspecies of the
Asian elephants were employed in the study. Based on band sharing frequency value of
pair-wise comparison within subspecies, the genetic relationship between Malayan and
Indian elephants was determined to be low and likewise between the Indian and
Myanmar elephants. Interestingly, the band sharing frequency value between Malayan
elephant and Myanmar elephant are genetically closely similar to the Malayan elephants
compared with the Indian elephants. With regards to the similarities in chromosome
morphology as well as at the DNA level, they are able to breed amongst themselves
without any complication related to parental chromosomal incompatibility. |
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