Karyotypes of Common Lionfish (Pterois miles Bennett, 1828)

Abstract

This research aimed to examine karyotypes of Common lionfish (P. miles). The male and female fish samples were kindly provided by Phuket Costal Fisheries Research and Development. Chromosomes were prepared from kidney cells by gently minced with direct
method. Conventional staining and Ag-NORs staining were applied to stain the chromosomes by 20% Giemsa’s solution and 50% silver nitrate. The results demonstrated that it has the number of diploid chromosome (2n) are 48 and fundamental number (FN) are 90 both male and female. Karyotype comprising of 4 metacentric, 6 submetacentric, 32 acrocentric and 6 telocentric chromosomes. The karyotype formula can be deduces as follow: 2n (48) = 4m+6sm+32a+6t. Moreover, the NORs (Nucleolar organizer regions) bearing chromosomes were located on the short arm near telomere of the acrocentric chromosomes pair 6 and use as marker
chromosome. The differences of sex chromosomes were not found. These cytogenetic data could be used for further studies of cytotaxonomy and evolutionary relationship of fishes.