Comparative chromosomal mapping in Triportheus fish species. Analysis of synteny between ribosomal genes

All Triportheus species show the conserved diploid number of 52 chromosomes and a ZZ/ZW sex chromosome system. Previous studies conducted on Triportheus nematurus reported a syntenical location of 18S and 5S sites on this species, in addition to some indications that this condition could be shared by other Triportheus species, possibly constituting a synapomorphy for this genus. In the present study, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments were performed in seven Triportheus species in view of a comparative analysis of the distribution of the 18S and 5S ribosomal DNAs on the chromosomes. The double-FISH experiments have showed that the synteny of the 18S and 5S rDNA genes is not a synapomorphy for the genus, since it is not present in all the species investigated, although it is present in most of them. The findings suggest that the syntenical location of the ribosomal genes is an ancestral trait in Triportheus, which was changed during the course of evolution of this group.