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The Robertsonian phenomenon in the house mouse: mutation, meiosis and speciation

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Abstract

Many different chromosomal races with reduced chromosome number due to the presence of Robertsonian fusion metacentrics have been described in western Europe and northern Africa, within the distribution area of the western house mouse Mus musculus domesticus. This subspecies of house mouse has become the ideal model for studies to elucidate the processes of chromosome mutation and fixation that lead to the formation of chromosomal races and for studies on the impact of chromosome heterozygosities on reproductive isolation and speciation. In this review, we briefly describe the history of the discovery of the first and subsequent metacentric races in house mice; then, we focus on the molecular composition of the centromeric regions involved in chromosome fusion to examine the molecular characteristics that may explain the great variability of the karyotype that house mice show. The influence that metacentrics exert on the nuclear architecture of the male meiocytes and the consequences on meiotic progression are described to illustrate the impact that chromosomal heterozygosities exert on fertility of house mice—of relevance to reproductive isolation and speciation. The evolutionary significance of the Robertsonian phenomenon in the house mouse is discussed in the final section of this review.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the many colleagues and students who have worked with us on the Robertsonian phenomenon. We are indebted to Ernesto Capanna for his generous gift of the picture of him and Alfred Gropp. We are grateful to the institutions and foundations that have contributed funding for the development of our work. S.G. was supported by Fondo di Ateneo per la Ricerca, University of Pavia (Italy); M.Z. was supported by Finanziamento Ricerca Locale, University of Parma (Italy); J.P. was supported by grant BFU2009/10987 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain); and R.F.D. was supported by FONDECYT grant 1120160 (Chile).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “Lazzaro Spallanzani” and Centro di Ingegneria Tissutale, Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Universita’ degli Studi di Pavia, Via A. Ferrata, 9, 27100, Pavia, Italy

    Silvia Garagna

  2. Departamento de Biología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049, Madrid, Spain

    Jesus Page

  3. Programa Genética Humana, ICBM—Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Raul Fernandez-Donoso

  4. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Biotecnologiche e Traslazionali, Università degli Studi di Parma, 43126, Parma, Italy

    Maurizio Zuccotti

  5. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Cornell University, Corson Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853-2701, USA

    Jeremy B. Searle

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  1. Silvia Garagna
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  2. Jesus Page
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  3. Raul Fernandez-Donoso
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  4. Maurizio Zuccotti
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  5. Jeremy B. Searle
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Correspondence to Silvia Garagna.

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Garagna, S., Page, J., Fernandez-Donoso, R. et al. The Robertsonian phenomenon in the house mouse: mutation, meiosis and speciation. Chromosoma 123, 529–544 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00412-014-0477-6

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