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Discovery of tetraploidy in a mammal

Nature volume 401, page 341 (1999)Cite this article

The red viscacha rat is unaffected by having double the usual number of chromosomes.

Abstract

Polyploidy, or having more than a pair of each type of chromosome, is considered to be unlikely in mammals because it would disrupt the mechanism of dosage compensation that normally inactivates one X chromosome in females1. Also, any imbalance in chromosome number should affect the normal developmental processes and therefore constitute an evolutionary end, as in triploid humans2.

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Figure 1: C-banded karyotype of a male Tympanoctomys barrerae from Mendoza, Argentina (4N=102; fundamental number of autosomal arms is 200).
Figure 2: Bright-field photomicrograph of sperm cells from different genera in the families Octodontidae and Abrocomidae.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Ecología y Evolución, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile

    Milton H. Gallardo & N. Köhler

  2. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, 77843, USA

    J. W. Bickham & R. L. Honeycutt

  3. Instituto Argentino de Investigación de Zonas Áridas, Cricyt, GIB Conicet Casilla de Correo 507, 5500, Mendoza, Argentina

    R. A. Ojeda

Authors
  1. Milton H. Gallardo
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  2. J. W. Bickham
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  3. R. L. Honeycutt
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  4. R. A. Ojeda
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  5. N. Köhler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Milton H. Gallardo.

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Gallardo, M., Bickham, J., Honeycutt, R. et al. Discovery of tetraploidy in a mammal. Nature 401, 341 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/43815

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