Publication at Faculty of Science |
2011
Abstract
A characteristic feature of spider karyotypes is the predominance of unusual multiple X chromosomes. To elucidate the evolution of these sex chromosomes, their meiotic behavior was analyzed in 2 major clades of opisthothele spiders, namely, the entelegyne araneomorphs and the mygalomorphs.
Spider meiotic sex chromosomes showed unique traits, namely, association with a chromosome pair in males and inactivation in females. Analysis of these traits supports the hypothesis that the multiple X chromosomes of spiders originated by duplications.