Molecular Cytogenetic Analysis of Karyotype and Y Chromosome Conservation in Species of the Genus Talpa (Insectivora)
The Talpidae family has a highly stable karyotype. Most of the chromosome studies in this mammal group, however, employed classical cytogenetic techniques. Molecular cytogenetic analyses are still scarce and, for example, no repeated DNA sequences have been described to date. In this work, we used sequence analysis, chromosomal mapping of a LINE1 retroelement sequence, as well as chromosome painting with a whole Y chromosome probe of T. occidentalis to compare the karyotypes of 3 species of the genus Talpa (T. occidentalis, T. romana, and T. aquitania).