Abstract

Canid species (dogs and foxes) have highly rearranged karyotypes and thus represent a challenge for conventional comparative cytogenetic studies. Among them, the domestic dog is one of the best-mapped species in mammals, constituting an ideal reference genome for comparative genomic study. Here we report the results of genome-wide comparative mapping of dog chromosome-specific probes onto chromosomes of the dhole, fennec fox, and gray fox, as well as the mapping of red fox chromosome-specific probes onto chromosomes of the corsac fox. We also present an integrated comparative chromosome map between the species studied here and all canids studied previously. The integrated map demonstrates an extensive conservation of whole chromosome arms across different canid species. In addition, we have generated a comprehensive genome phylogeny for the Canidae on the basis of the chromosome rearrangements revealed by comparative painting. This genome phylogeny has provided new insights into the karyotypic relationships among the canids. Our results, together with published data, allow the formulation of a likely Canidae ancestral karyotype (CAK, 2n = 82), and reveal that at least 6-24 chromosomal fission/fusion events are needed to convert the CAK karyotype to that of the modern canids.