Rapid karyotypic changes in a primate taxon: possibility of participation of repetitive DNA as chromosome breakage inducer

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25650152
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Physical anthropology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: KOGA Akihiko 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 教授 (80192574)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 染色体 / 反復配列 / ゲノム / 霊長類

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The owl monkey, also called the night monkey, is a New World monkey species. This monkey exhibits rapid changes in the structure and conformation of chromosomes. The author hypothesized that the rapid changes are associated with the presence of a large amount of repetitive DNA in the owl monkey genome. This hypothesis involves, as its initial part, that the repetitive DNA that is specific to the owl monkey is fragile; easily degraded in the process of DNA replication. Experimental results indicated that this DNA is fragile and, thus, the condition necessary for the above hypothesis was fulfilled.

Free Research Field

分子進化学