Genome size variation and its phenotypic consequences in Phyllotis rodents.

Constitutive heterochromatin and genome size were studied in Phyllotis darwini, three Phyllotis xanthopygus subspecies, and their interspecific laboratory hybrids. P. darwini, with no or only small C-bands, had the smallest genome size; P. xanthopygus rupestris and P. x. vaccarum, with large C-bands in all the chromosomes, had the largest; and P. x. xanthopygus, with heterochromatin only in a few chromosomes, showed intermediate genome size. To examine some phenotypic consequences of nuclear DNA content, we measured nuclear and cellular surfaces and volumes. Linear regression analyses showed that all these cellular characters had a highly significant direct relationship with genome size. Hybrids had always the expected intermediate parental characteristics. Previous results indicate that P. x. vaccarum should have longer mitotic cycles and lower reproductive capacity than P. darwini. Our findings suggest that the "nucleotypic DNA" hypothesis, which considers genome size as an adaptive feature in higher plants and lower vertebrates, could be extended to these mammals. The analysis of heterochromatin and nuclear DNA amounts of other phyllotine and akodontine rodents supports the idea that small C-bands and genomes are ancestral conditions, from which independent and parallel events occurred until large genomes were produced.