G-Banded Karyotype and Ideogram for the North Atlantic Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis)

• Published in: Journal of Heredity
• Main Authors: Pause, Kimberly C., Bonde, Robert K., McGuire, Peter M., Zori, Robert T., Gray, Brian A.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2006
• Subjects: Brief Communications; baleen whales; Eubalaena glacialis; North Atlantic; North Atlantic right whale
• Online Access: http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/97/3/303; https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esj033

Published cytogenetic data for extant cetacean species remain incomplete. In a review of the literature, we found karyotypic information for 6 of the 13 tentatively recognized species of the suborder Mysticeti (baleen whales). Among those yet to be described is the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale ( Eubalaena glacialis) . Herein, we describe and propose a first-generation G-banded karyotype and ideogram for this species (2 n = 42), obtained from peripheral blood chromosome preparations from a stranded male calf. This information may prove useful for future genetic mapping projects and for interspecific and intraspecific genomic comparisons by techniques such as zoo-FISH.