Pericentric satellite DNA and molecular phylogeny in Acomys (Rodentia)

Satellite DNAs (stDNAs) of four Acomys species (spiny-mice), A. cahirinus, A. cineraceus, A. dimidiatus and A. russatus, belong to closely related sequence families. Monomer sizes range from 338 to 364 bp. Between-species sequence identity was from 81.0% to 97.2%. The molecular phylogeny of the sequences helps to clarify the taxonomy of this 'difficult' group. The A. dimidiatus genome contains about 60,000 repeats. According to the restriction patterns, repeats are arranged in tandem. The stDNA maps to the centromeric heterochromatin of most autosomes, both acrocentric and metacentric, but appears to be absent in the centromeric region of Y chromosomes. A well-conserved centromere protein B (CENP-B) box is present in the stDNA of A. russatus while it is degenerated in the other species.