| Cytogenetic studies have become an invaluable tool contributing to the solution of many systematic and evolutionary problems in fishes (Amemiya and Gold, 1988; Rab et al., 1991; Nirchio et al., 2003). Classical cytogenetic analyses made use of differential staining techniques to investigate numbers and chromosomal locations of the nucleolus organizer regions (NORs) and the chromosomal distribution and composition of the constitutive heterochromatin (ie Gold et al., 1990; Collares-Pereira, 1992; Boron, 1995; Rab et al., 1996; Rossi et al., 1996, 2005; Sola et al., 2007; Nirchio et al., 2009). The family Mugilidae is very important as a food fish for humans. Its members are distributed throughout the world from temperate to tropical coastal waters, readily entering estuaries and even resident in freshwaters. This family includes about 17 genera with 72 species (Nelson, 2006; Sola et al., 2007; Coad, 2010). In Turkey, the Mugilidae family is represented by nine species: Mugil cephalus, M. soiuy, Liza ramada, L. aurata, L. abu, L. saliens, L. carinata, Chelon labrosus, andOedalechilus labeo (Geldiay and Balik, 1988; Kuru, 2004; Turan et al., 2005). Among these, L. abu is known to inhabit and spawn in freshwater in southeastern Asia, in the Tigris-Euphrates and Orontes river basins (Coad, 2010). Cytogenetic analyses are available for 16 species of Mugilidae mainly from the Mediterranean Sea and South America (reviewed in Sola et al., 2007 and Arai, 2011). However, the karyology of L. abu had not been studied. In the present survey, the cytogenetic analysis of L. abu is reported through Giemsa and Ag-NOR staining. The obtained karyological data … |
Deniz Değer
Prof. Dr. Muhammet GAFFAROĞLU
