Molecular cytogenetic analysis of the Appenine endemic cyprinid fish Squalius lucumonis and three other Italian leuciscines using chromosome banding and FISH with rDNA probes

Karyotype and other chromosomal characteristics of the Appenine endemic cyprinid fish, Toscana stream chub Squalius lucumonis, were analysed using conventional banding and FISH with 45S and 5S rDNA probes. The diploid chromosome number (2n = 50) and karyotype characteristics including pericentromeric heterochromatic blocks and GC-rich CMA₃-positive sites corresponding to both positive Ag-NORs and 45S rDNA loci on the short arms of a single medium-sized submetacentric chromosome pair were consistent with those found in most European leuciscine cyprinids. On other hand, 5S rDNA FISH in the Toscana stream chub and three other Italian leuciscines, S. squalus, Rutilus rubilio and Telestes muticellus, revealed a species-specific hybridization pattern, i.e. signals on four (S. lucumonis), three (S. squalus and R. rubilio) and two (T. muticellus) chromosome pairs. Whereas all the species shared the 5S rDNA loci on the largest subtelocentric chromosome pair, a “leuciscine” cytotaxonomic marker, S. lucumonis showed both classes of rDNA loci tandem aligned on the short arms of chromosome pair No. 12. The present findings suggest that the observed high variability of 5S rDNA loci provides a powerful tool for investigation of karyotype differentiation in karyologically conservative leuciscine fishes.