A pachytene karyotype of the common shrew (Sorex araneus)

Abstract

Synaptonemal complexes were measured and a consensus karyorype was constructed from two Oxford race shrews which had differing numbers of Robertsonian rearrangements. The total synaptonemal complex lengths for a shrew homozygous for chromosomes kq and no was 553 μm and that for a shrew in which chromosomes k, n, o, and q occurred as acrocentrics was 424 μm. The difference between these two measurements is unexpected and is not related to genome size.