Rodents represent more than forty percent of the all living mammalian species (order Rodentia). Rodents like as mice and rats help spreading certain diseases, such as the plague, to humans and other animals. In the same time, the taxonomy and systematics of this animal group is extremely complex and poorly understood. The amount of new information on karyotypic and phylogenetic relations within and among rodent taxa is rapidly increased, but fusion of these data is currently lacking. So, the current study was carried out for the genetical analysis of eight members from the species and subspecies of order Rodentia in Egypt. Our results clarified that all of the three sub-species of Mus musculus species (M. m. musculus, M. m. praetextus and M. m. domesticus) are very closely related to each other and have the same diploid number of chromosomes (2n=40), with fundamental number (FN) equals to 40. Meanwhile, the two Rattus rattus species (R. r. norvegicus and R. r. rattus) have different diploid numbers of chromosomes (2n=38 and 2n=42 respectively), but their FN is the same (FN= 56). Concerning the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus) the diploid number of chromosomes 2n = 36 and FN= 68. However, the diploid number of the Syrian hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is 2n=44 chromosomes and FN= 78 .With reference to Guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) which has diploid number 2n = 64 chromosomes and their FN= 64.
Key words: Acomys cahirinus; Cavia porcellus; Mesocricetus auratus; Mus musculus species; Order: Rodentia; Rattus rattus species; Karyotyping
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