Evolution of the chromosomal banding pattern

Specific chromosome banding patterns in different eukaryotic taxa are reviewed. In all eukaryotes, chromosomes are composed of alternating bands, each differing from the adjacent material by the molecular composition and structural characteristics. In minute chromosomes of fungi and Protozoa, these bands are represented by kinetochores (Kt-(Cd-)bands), nucleolus organizers (N-bands), and telomeres as well as the euchromatin. In genomes of most fungi and protists, long clusters of tandem repeats and, consequently, C-bands were not revealed but they are likely to be found out in species with chromosomes visible under a light microscope, which are several tens of million bp in size. chromosomes of Metazoa are usually larger. Even in Cnidaria, they contain C-bands, which are replicated late in the S phase. In Deuterostomia, chromosome euchromatin regions differ by replication time: bands replicating at the first half of the S phase alternate with bands replicating at the second half of the S phase. Longitudinal differentiation in the replication pattern of euchromatic regions is observed in all classes of Vertebrata beginning with the bony fish although the time when it developed in Deuterostomia is unknown. Apparently, the evolution of early and late replicating subdomains in Vertebrata euchromatin promoted fast accumulation of differences in the molecular composition of nucleoproteid complexes characteristic of early and late replicating bands. As a result, the more contrasting G/R and Q-banding patterns of chromosomes developed especially in Eutheria. The evolution of Protostomia and Plantae followed another path. An increase in chromosome size was not accompanied by the appearance of wide RBE and RBL euchromatin bands. The G/R-like banding within the interstitial chromosome regions observed in some representatives of invertebrates and higher plants arose independently in different phylogenetic lineages. This banding pattern seems to be closer to that of C-banding than to the typical G/R-banding of the mammalian chromosomes.