Banded karyotype of the Konya wild sheep (Ovis orientalis anatolica Valenciennes, 1856) from Turkey

Abstract

The karyotype, C-banding, and nucleoar organizer regions (NORs) of eight specimens of Konya wild sheep from Turkey were examined. The complement included six large metacentric autosomes, 46 acrocentric autosomes of decreasing size, a medium-sized acrocentric X chromosome, and a small bi-armed Y chromosome (the diploid chromosome number 2n=54, the number of autosomal arms NFa=58, the number of chromosome arms NF=61). G-banding allowed reliable identification of all the chromosome pairs and the pairing of homologous elements. All the autosomes possessed distinct centromeric or pericentromeric C-positive bands. The X chromosome had a pericentromeric C-positive band, and the Y chromosome was entirely C-heterochromatic. The NORs were located in the terminal regions of the long arms of three metacentric and two acrocentric autosomes. The karyotype of the Konya wild sheep and its banding patterns are quite similar to chromosome complement reported in domestic sheep and European mouflon. © Atilla Arslan, Jan Zima.