Chromosomal Evolution of the Talpinae.

In recent years, the number of mole species with species status confirmed by genetic methods has been continuously increasing. Unfortunately, cytogenetic data are not yet available for all species. Here, for the first time, a GTG-banded karyotype of the small-toothed mole from Vietnam, , a representative of the Eastern clade of the genus , has been described. Through comparative analysis of available , , and and karyotypes, we found cytogenetic signatures for each of the studied species. Zoo-FISH with sorted chromosomes of the Siberian mole ( on chromosome sets of the small-toothed mole (, the small Japanese mole () from the closely related genus, and the Japanese shrew mole ( from the tribe made it possible to identify syntenic regions between these species. We propose a possible ancestral karyotype of the tribe and, based on it, traced the features of chromosomal rearrangements accompanying the divergence of moles. The low rates of chromosomal evolution within the species of the genus and -and the high rates of karyotypic reshuffling within the Asian genera of the tribe were confirmed. The karyotype of the Japanese mountain mole seems to be the most conserved among the Asian moles. The most frequently occurring types of chromosomal rearrangements in moles are the pericentric inversions and amplification of heterochromatin. The pericentric inversions on four pairs of autosomes are shared between the closely related genera , , and , while many more apomorphic rearrangements have occurred in each lineage additionally. The highest rate of chromosomal changes, with five rearrangements occurring over approximately 7 million years, was recorded in the lineage of the small-toothed mole.