Homologies between human and dolphin chromosomes detected by heterologous chromosome painting.

Human chromosome-specific probes for the entire karyotype were hybridized to metaphase spreads of the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, to directly compare the evolutionary conservation of chromosomal segments between these two distantly related species. All human chromosomal paints, except the Y probe, hybridized to Tursiops counterparts, and every dolphin chromosome was painted except for the smallest submetacentric pair. In our analysis, 36 segments of conserved synteny common to the human and dolphin genomes were identified. The distribution of conserved chromosomal segments and the specific rearrangement patterns found between the two genomes are presented and discussed.