Chromosome studies of European cyprinid fishes: cross-species painting reveals natural allotetraploid origin of a Carassius female with 206 chromosomes.

A single female with 206 chromosomes and another 26 females with 156 chromosomes identified as Prussian carp, Carassius gibelio, and 5 individuals with 100 chromosomes identified as crucian carp, C. carassius, were sampled during field survey in one locality in the upper Elbe River. To identify the origin of females with high chromosome numbers, comparative karyotype analysis, GISH, with whole C. carassius DNA as probe and phylogenetic positions of sampled individuals revealed by cytochrome b mitochondrial marker were performed. GISH showed consistently bright labeling of 50 chromosomal elements out of 206, corresponding to the haploid chromosome number of C. carassius. The position of these females with high chromosome numbers in a reconstructed phylogenetic tree was within the clade of C. gibelio, documenting its affiliation to C. gibelio mitochondrial, i.e. maternal lineage. Our findings indicated that the mother of the female with high chromosome numbers was a gynogenetically reproducing 156-chromosome C. gibelio female and the father a bisexually reproducing C. carassius male. We, therefore, hypothesized that the C. gibelio × C. carassius allopolyploid female with 206 chromosomes arose by a mechanism of sperm genome addition to an unreduced egg of the mother.