Karyological Analysis of Two Endemic Tooth-Carps, Aphanius persicus and Aphanius sophiae (Pisces: Cyprinodontidae), from Southwest Iran

Abstract

The karyotypes of 2 endemic tooth-carps of Iran, Aphanius persicus (Jenkis, 1910) and Aphanius sophiae (Heckel, 1849), were investigated by examining metaphase chromosomes spreads obtained from gill epithelial and kidney cells. The diploid chromosome numbers of both species were 2n = 48. The karyotypes consisted of 11 pairs of submetacentric and 13 pairs of subtelocentric chromosomes in A. persicus and 14 submetacentric and 10 subtelocentric chromosomes in A. sophiae. The arm numbers in A. persicus and A. sophiae were NF = 70 and NF = 76, respectively. Sex chromosomes were cytologically indistinguishable in both tooth-carps.