Further data on the occurrence and evolution of satellite DNA families in the lacertid genome.

This paper reports the isolation and characterization of two HindIII repetitive DNA families from the genome of two lacertid lizards, Podarcis sicula and Lacerta saxicola. These satellites did not appear to be related to each other. The consensus sequences of their monomeric units did not show any similarity, though both DNAs were A-T rich. Moreover, each of them was found only in closely related species. The monomeric unit of the HindIII DNA family isolated from P. sicula (pLHS) showed a close resemblance to pLCS, a centromeric satellite DNA previously isolated from the same species; it was, however, mainly localized at pericentromeric, interstitial and telomeric levels. The results also provide interesting information on the systematics of the lacertids studied.