THE GIEMSA BANDING PATTERN OF THE AUSTRALIAN SWAMP BUFFALO (BUBALUS BUBALIS): CHROMOSOME HOMOLOGY WITH OTHER BOVIDAE

A Giemsa banding method was used to obtain preparations from which a G-band idiogram for the chromosomes of the Australian Swamp Buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) was constructed. Comparison with the G-banding patterns for goat, sheep, and ox chromosomes showed a remarkably close similarity individual paris, banding pattern homologies for the buffalo metacentric autosomes being identifiable among the acrocentric autosomes of the other species. However, the goat and sheep lacked a comparable autosome to the buffalo 10, the buffalo lacked an autosome comparable to the ox 12, the acrocentric X chromosome of the buffalo banded most closely to the goat X and was least like the ox. The buffalo Y chromosome was unlike its counterpart in the other species. The results are in keeping with the previously expressed view of evolution within the Bovidae by a Robertsonian mechanism modified by the apparent absence of one pari of autosomes from the buffalo and of a different pari from sheep and goats.