Genetic variability in two captive colonies of Cebus apella paraguayanus (primates: platyrrhini) from eastern Paraguay

MARTINEZ, ROMARI A.; TORRES, E.; NIEVES, MARIELA; SZAPKIEVICH, VALERIA B.; RODRIGUEZ, S.; SCHININI, A.; ASCURRA, M.; MUDRY, MARTA D.

CARYOLOGIA

The University of Florence

Año: 2004 vol. 57 p. 332 - 336

0008-7114

The tufted capuchin, Cebus apella is a New World Monkey (NWM) species widely used in biomedicine.Its genetic variability has been assessed through various genetic tools. The present study offers a cytogenetic characterization of two captive colonies of Paraguayan specimens, in order to increase the current information on the role of cytogenetic polymorphisms in management of captive capuchins, specially useful for those employed as biomedical models. G-banding confirms all individual as Cebus apella paraguayanus (CAPp). C- banding shows heterochromatic polymorphisms already published for this species, and a paracentric inversion of the interstitial heterochromatin of pair 12, with members of this pair remaining of equal size in all the sample A retrospective study of C-band polymorphisms in captive CAPp individuals shows a great number of heteromorphisms, considering not only presence/absence of a particular band, but also size and amount of heterochromatin. Therefore, two types of heterochromaticheteromorphisms have been observed (distributional, with a paracentric inversion but no apparent loss of heterochromatin, and quantitative, with a drastic reduction of one homologue’s band, therefore on its total size) suggesting complex chromatin rearrangements for Paraguayan populations, and supporting the idea that Cebus is, among the NWM, perhaps the best model to analyze heterochromatin behavior.