Korobitsina K.V., Kartavtseva I.V.
Zoologicheskiy zhurnal 1988; 67(12): 1889-1899
Through comparision of C- and G-banded chromosomes has been carried out in middday gerbils of the USSR fauna. Wide intraspecific variability has been found (inversions, deletion-duplication, translocations) that allows us to revise the existing intraspecific taxonomy of M. meridianus and to specify the volume of the species. The most variable are the heterochromatin structures. The paper deals with the ralations between chromosome variability and continuous effect of local infections on gerbls. A hypothesis has been advanced that rearrangements in one of the heterochromatin type are due to gene amplification and formation of homogeneously stained regions (HSR) during the development of pathogen resistence. To account the arm number in midday gerbls a new system has been proposed according to which their NF varies from 84 to 100. The analysis of G-banded chromosomes did not confirm previous conclusions on the rearrangement of Y-chromosome in populations of plague susceptible gerbils.
