The evolution of haploid chromosome numbers in Meliponini.

ABSTRACT: It is thought that two evolutionary mechanisms gave rise to chromosomal variation in bees: the first one points to polyploidy as the main cause of chromosomal evolution, while the second, Minimum Interaction Theory (MIT), is more frequently used to explain chromosomal changes in Meliponini and suggests that centric fission is responsible for variations in karyotype. However, differences in chromosome number between Meliponini and its sister taxa and in the karyotype patterns of the Melipona genus cannot be explained by MIT, suggesting that other events were involved in chromosomal evolution. Thus, we assembled cytogenetical and molecular information to reconstruct an ancestral chromosome number for Meliponini and its sister group, Bombini, and propose a hypothesis to explain the evolutiona

SUBMITTER: Travenzoli NM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6812824 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature