Chromosome Study of Persian Sturgeon Acipenser persicus B.

Abstract

The karyotype of the Persian sturgeon that occurs in the southern part of the CaspianSea (Iranian shoreline) was studied for the first time. Metaphase plates prepared in this study indicate that the chromosome number of this species in 2n=258±4. Owing to the presence of a greatnumber of microchromosomes (about half the number of the whole set) it was not possible to determine the exact number of chromosomes. The morphology of all the chromosomes was not clear due to the small size of the microchromosomes. The karyotype prepared of this species consisted of 67 pairs of meta-and submetacentric, 64 pairs of acrocentric and microchromosomes.