Comparative sex chromosome hybridizations in Ruminantia

The syntenic conservation nature of some chromosomes enables the use of several molecular probes obtained from one species of animals to detect homologous DNA segments in other species. The aim of this study was to analyse homology between sex chromosomes in several species belonging to the suborder Ruminantia (sheep - Ovis aries, fallow deer - Dama dama, aoudad - Ammotragus lervia, red deer - Cervus elaphus) using bovine heterosome painting probes in FISH technique. The results obtained showed strong red fluorescence signals in small metacentric heterosomes Y and distinct yellow-green signals in large acrocentric chromosomes X of all compared species.