[Cloning and analysis of highly repetitive sequence fragments from takin (Budorcas taxicolor)]

Takin (Budorcas taxicolor) is a large animal living in China and other adjacent countries, which belongs to Bovidae of Artiodactyla. The anatomy, morphology and behavior of takin are between species of the subfamily Bovinae and Caprinae. It is now in a separated genus or in the same genus with muskox (Ovibos moschatus). To gain insight into the evolution of takin, we purified and cloned its highly repetitive BamHI fragments from the genomic DNA. The sequences of three fragments were highly homologous, indicative of units of a large repetitive DNA arrays. Southern hybridization using these fragments as probes showed identical patterns among individuals in both the same and different subspecies, implying conserved sequences and distributions of the BamHI clusters in takin genome. Sequence comparison with 1.714 and 1.715 satellite DNA of other species in Bovidae supports that takin has a closer relationship with the subfamily Caprinae than with Bovinae. It also suggests that these BamHI fragments may represent repeat units of the centromeric satellite DNA of takin.