Genomic Organization of Repetitive DNA Elements and Extensive Karyotype Diversity of Silurid Catfishes (Teleostei: Siluriformes): A Comparative Cytogenetic Approach.

The catfish family Siluridae contains 107 described species distributed in Asia, but with some distributed in Europe. In this study, karyotypes and other chromosomal characteristics of 15 species from eight genera were examined using conventional and molecular cytogenetic protocols. Our results showed the diploid number (2) to be highly divergent among species, ranging from 2 = 40 to 92, with the modal frequency comprising 56 to 64 chromosomes.

Karyotype and chromosomal characteristics of rDNA of Karaman, 1955 (Teleostei, Cobitidae) from Lake Volvi, Greece.

The karyotype of Greek cobitid fish Karaman, 1955, from Lake Volvi, Greece, a representative of one of its two major intraspecific phylogenetic lineages, was analysed by means of sequential Giemsa-staining, C-banding, silver-staining, CMA fluorescence banding and also by hybridization (FISH) with rDNA probe. The diploid chromosome number was 2n = 50, karyotype composed of 10 pairs of metacentric to submetacentric and 15 pairs of subtelocentric to acrocentric chromosomes. The nucleolus organizer regions (NORs) as revealed by Ag- and CMA staining and FISH were situated in the telomeric region of the fourth submetacentric chromosome pair.

Genetic analyses of brown hare (Lepus europaeus) support limited migration and translocation of Greek populations.

Numerous studies have shown that the phylogeography of many species, including European brown hare, has been affected by the climatic oscillations of the Pleistocene. During this period the Balkans acted as a major refugium offering habitable conditions for many species. However, few studies have focused on the specific role of the Greek peninsula in the phylogeographic history of species in this southernmost margin of Balkans.

No evidence from genome-wide data of a Khazar origin for the Ashkenazi Jews.

The origin and history of the Ashkenazi Jewish population have long been of great interest, and advances in high-throughput genetic analysis have recently provided a new approach for investigating these topics. We and others have argued on the basis of genome-wide data that the Ashkenazi Jewish population derives its ancestry from a combination of sources tracing to both Europe and the Middle East. It has been claimed, however, through a reanalysis of some of our data, that a large part of the ancestry of the Ashkenazi population originates with the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking group that lived to the north of the Caucasus region ~1,000 years ago.

Greece: a Balkan subrefuge for a remnant red deer (cervus elaphus) population.

A number of phylogeographic studies have revealed the existence of multiple ice age refugia within the Balkan Peninsula, marking it as a biodiversity hotspot. Greece has been reported to harbor genetically differentiated lineages from the rest of Balkans for a number of mammal species. We therefore searched for distinct red deer lineages in Greece, by analyzing 78 samples originating from its last population in Parnitha Mountain (Central Greece).