Abstract
Telomeric repeats in two members of the sawfly family Tenthredinidae (Hymenoptera), namely, Tenthredo omissa (Förster, 1844) and Taxonus agrorum (Fallén, 1808) (both have n = 10), were studied using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Chromosomes of both species were demonstrated to contain the canonical TTAGG insect telomeric repeat, which constitutes the first report of the (TTAGG)n telomeric motif for the Tenthredinidae as well as for the clade Eusymphyta and the suborder Symphyta in general. Taken together with the presence of this repeat in many other Holometabola as well as in the hymenopteran families Formicidae and Apidae from the suborder Apocrita, these results collectively suggest the ancestral nature of the (TTAGG)n telomeric motif in the Hymenoptera as well as its subsequent loss within the clade Unicalcarida and independent reappearance in ants and bees. If this is true, the loss of the TTAGG repeat can be considered as a synapomorphy of the corresponding clade.
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Acknowledgements
The present study was partly supported by the research Grant no. 18-04-00611 from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research to VEG. The financial support for realization of the FISH experiments was provided by the Russian Science Foundation (Grant no. 14-14-00541) to the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (VGK). The authors are also grateful to Boris A. Anokhin (Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences) for technical assistance with FISH.
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Gokhman, V.E., Kuznetsova, V.G. Presence of the canonical TTAGG insect telomeric repeat in the Tenthredinidae (Symphyta) suggests its ancestral nature in the order Hymenoptera. Genetica 146, 341–344 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-018-0019-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-018-0019-x