New evidence for the presence of the telomere motif (TTAGG) n in the family Reduviidae and its absence in the families Nabidae and Miridae (Hemiptera, Cimicomorpha)

Abstract

Male karyotype and meiosis in four true bug species belonging to the families Reduviidae, Nabidae, and Miridae (Cimicomorpha) were studied for the first time using Giemsa staining and FISH with 18S ribosomal DNA and telomeric (TTAGG)n probes. We found that Rhynocoris punctiventris (Herrich-Schäffer, 1846) and R. iracundus (Poda, 1761) (Reduviidae: Harpactorinae) had 2n = 28 (24 + X1X2X3Y), whereas Nabis sareptanus Dohrn, 1862 (Nabidae) and Horistus orientalis (Gmelin, 1790) (Miridae) had 2n = 34 (32 + XY) and 2n = 32 (30 + XY), respectively. FISH for 18S rDNA revealed hybridization signals on a sex chromosome, the X or the Y, in H. orientalis, on both X and Y chromosomes in N. sareptanus, and on two of the four sex chromosomes, Y and one of the Xs, in both species of Rhynocoris Hahn, 1834. The results of FISH with telomeric probes support with confidence the absence of the “insect” telomere motif (TTAGG)n in the families Nabidae and Miridae and its presence in both species of genus Rhynocoris of the Reduviidae, considered as a basal family of Cimicomorpha. Increasing evidence reinforces the hypothesis of the loss of the canonical “insect” telomere motif (TTAGG)n by at least four cimicomorphan families, Nabidae, Miridae, Tingidae, and Cimicidae, for which data are currently available.