Karotypic characterization of turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) with conventional,fluorochrome and restriction endonuclease-banding techniques

A karyotypic analysis was carried out in turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) using conventional banding techniques, fluorochromes and restriction endonucleasebanding. The standard karyotype of turbot is 2n=44 chromosomes, with 48 chromosome arms. Nucleolar organizer regions, which were localized in the short arm of Chromosome Pair No. 3, showed C-and chromomycin A₃-positive staining. C-bands were mainly located at the centromeres, but were also present in some interstitial and telomeric locations. No differences were revealed among constitutive heterochromatin bands after treatment of fixed chromosomes with fluorochrome staining and restriction endonucleases. Digestion with DdeI restriction enzyme produced a pattern of interstitial banding which suggested some degree of differentiation along the chromosome arms in turbot. Neither variation in chromosome number of arm number nor polymorphism in nucleolar organizer regions was revealed in the turbot analyzed.