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Updated: May 21, 2026

Tissue Collection of Bats for -Omics Analyses and Primary Cell Culture
Published on: October 23, 2019
Chromosome evolution in bats as revealed by FISH: the ongoing search for the ancestral chiropteran karyotype
1Department of Human Genetics, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany. Marianne.Volleth@med.ovgu.de
Abstract:
Chiroptera, the second largest order of mammals, comprises more than 1,000 species in 18 highly morphologically diverse families. Chromosome painting with human probes has been applied to 10 bat species from 8 families. Except for the combination 10/12pq/22q, all syntenic segmental associations proposed for the mammalian ancestor have been found in Chiroptera. Bat-specific painting probes, established from 4 species of 3 families, have been used in whole chromosome painting experiments in 29 species from 8 families. The results show that the prevailing mode of chromosomal evolution in bats is Robertsonian translocation with a large number of convergent events. Given our present knowledge of chiropteran karyotypes, only a few elements of the ancestral chiropteran karyotype can be reconstructed with confidence.
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