The use of interspecific hybrid chromosomes as a tool for precise comparative mapping analysis

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anglais. The chicken karyotype is considered to closely resemble that of the putative ancestor of modern Aves, presenting most of the characteristics typical of the 10% of avian species karyotyped to date. It possess a large number of chromosomes (2n=78), many of which are indistinguishable ‚microchromosomes’ (30 pairs), females are heterogametic (ZW) whereas males are homogametic (ZZ). Moreover, the knowledge on the chicken genome is wide by comparison with other bird species. That is why the chicken genome is often used as a reference. Evolutionary studies using zoo-FISH and BAC-FISH have demonstrated birds to have a more stable genome organization compared to mammals, with inter-chromosomal rearrangements corresponding to rarely occurring fusion/fission events. In Galliformes, the karyotype is very stable but generation of high-resolution comparative maps and sequence data have revealed an unexpectedly high number of intra-chromosomal rearrangements if previous cytogenetic data is considered. We took benefit of F1 interspecific hybrids to develop some precise macrochromosome comparisons between chicken and quail. In the 2000’s in order to study feather coloration genes, a number of cocks (Gallus gallus domesticus Linnaeus, 1758) where mated with japanese quail females (Coturnix japonica Temminck et Schlegel, 1849). A few hybrids were obtained. It was possible to prepare cytogenetic samples from fibroblast cell cultures. The analysis of the karyotype by classical cytogenetic methods (conventional giemsa staining and G-banding) has allowed the precise characterisation and comparison of macrochromosomes (length, centromere position, banding pattern) for each parental species at the same stage of chromatin condensation. We have also used this unique material for FISH localisation of specific repeated sequences. Thus, we were able to compare the cytogenetic distributions of these sequences in chicken and quail. The use of interspecific hybrid metaphases is a powerful tool for comparative mapping.