Fibroblast Cell Culture,Karyotyping And G-banding Of The Chromosomes Of Horse, Donkey And Mule

This study developed a culture system for somatic fibroblast cells derived from horse, donkey and mule. The karyotypes and G-band patterns of those cell lines were examined. The study has not only provided the basic cytogenetic information of the horse, donkey and mule, also partially illuminated fertility of interspecies breeding.The somatic cells were derived from the skins of those animals and standard method with a slight modification was used to prepare the chromosome spreading of those cell lines. The chromosome numbers in horse, donkey and mule are 64,62 and 63, respectively, which were consistent with previously observations by others. Two sets of chromosomes in the infertile mule, one set was similar to horse chromosomes and another was similar to donkey chromosomes. In contrast, majority of the chromosomes of the cells derived from fertile mule were difficult to determine their origins except a few chromosomes.The G-band of the horse, donkey and mule displayed species unique between bright and dark bands patterns. None of chromosomes between horse and donkey has the same G-band patterns. The G-band patterns between the infertile female and male mules was similar, however, those were significant different compared with the fertile female mules. We assume that the degrees of the rearrangements or exchanges between the two set chromosomes from different origins may effect the germ cell formation.