Comparative cytogenetic study in Muscidae flies

Abstract

The chromosome modal number in Muscoidea Diptera is 2n = 12, including five pairs of autosomes and one sex chromosome pair. Nevertheless, some species with 2n = 10 chromosomes have been described, all of them from the Muscidae family. We analyzed the karyotype of some Muscidae species from different subfamilies and compared the obtained data with the karyotypes of some species of the families Calliphoridae and Sarcophagidae. Comparisons of these species with other Muscidae species revealed a considerable variation among their sex chromosomes. This variation in the length of the sex chromosomes suggests that parts of these chromosomes were lost or fused with autosomes. The constitutive heterochromatic regions and the nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) were also analyzed and some aspects about the relationship between these regions and the sex chromosomes are discussed.