Chromosome Study of Ethiopian Bat Species (Order Chiroptera) International Journal of Biotechnology and Bioengineering Research Article Volume 7 Issue 6, Chromosome Study of Ethiopian Bat Species (Order Chiroptera) August 2021 Bekele Serbessa Tolera1*, Mulugeta Tafere Woldegebriel2, Kifle Dagne Woldegebriel3 1Department of Biology, Wollega University, P. O. Box 395, Nekemte, Ethiopia Copyright 2Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute Bahir Dar Biodiversity Center, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia ©2021 Bekele Serbessa Tolera 3Department of Microbial, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, et al.This is an open access ar- Ethiopia ticle distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attri- Corresponding author: Bekele Serbessa Tolera bution License, which permits Department of Biology, Wollega University, P. O. Box 395, Nekemte, Ethiopia. unrestricted use, distribution, E-mail: [email protected] and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and Received: July 21, 2021; source are credited Article History: Accepted: July 24, 2021; Published: August 10, 2021. AbstractIn this study, chromosome numbers and karyotypes of 11 bat species were analyzed. The animals were captured alive by using nets and handpicking and then chromosome preparations were made from bone marrow cells with colchicines method. Bats were collected from nine localities in Ethiopia, namely: Citation Arbaminch, Batu/Ziway, Waliso, Fiche, Bishoftu/Debre-Zeit, Sof-Umar, Koka, Merehabete and Adaba. Bekele Serbessa Tolera et al. The species name and the chromosome number (2n) with their corresponding autosomal fundamental (2021), Chromosome Study of Ethiopian Bat Species (Order number (FN) obtained are: Hipposideros caffer (2n = 32, FN = 60/62) and Triaenops persicus (2n = Chiroptera). Int J Biotech & 36, FN = 60) are belong to family Hipposideridae; Chaerephon pumilus (2n = 48 and FN = 54/56) with Bioeng. 7:6. 105-117 metacentric, acrocentric and acrocentric chromosomes, Chaerephon leucogaster (2n = 48, FN = 54), and Mops condylura (2n = 48, FN = 54) are members of the family Molossidae; Pipistrellus pipistrellus (2n = 36, FN = 52) with metacentric and acrocentric chromosomes, Neoromicia nanus (2n = 36, FN = 48), Miniopterus africanus (2n = 46, FN = 54) and Scotophilus dingani (S. viridis) 2n = 36, FN = 54) with metacentric and acrocentric chromosomes are members of the family Vespertilionidae; Micropteropus pusillus (2n = 35/36, FN = 68) with all the chromosomes being biarmed belongs to family Pteropidae; ISSN 2475-3432 Nycteris thebaica (2n = 42, FN = 78/80) with 40 biarmed and two acrocentric chromosomes is member of family Nycteridae. Totally, 15 different types of chromosome number, fundamental number and Published by morphology were identified. C. leucogaster has not been recorded in the Ethiopian bats list before. Biocore Group | All of these species are karyologically described for the first time from Ethiopia. Some of the karyotypic www.biocoreopen.org/ijbb/archive.php findings in the present study are in agreement with previous reports from other countries, except for the lack of report on one species (C. leucogaster). In our study, the encountered problems include: lack of karyotypic literatures on Ethiopian bats and taxonomic identification. It is recommended that more karyotypic study of bat species in the country should be done using additional techniques and due attentions should be given to the conservations of this threatened groups of animals because they are declining in diversity as well as in density. Keywords Bat, Chiroptera, Chromosome number, Fundamental number, Karyotype . Declaration of Conflicting Interest The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, author- ship, and/or publication of this article. Acknowledgment Addis Ababa University, college of Natural and computational science and Research Pro- gramme on Sustainable Use of Dryland Biodiversity (RPSUD) funded this project. 105 International Journal of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Volume 7 Issue 6, August 2021 Chromosome Study of Ethiopian Bat Species (Order Chiroptera) Introduction Bats (Class Mammalia, order Chiroptera) are the second largest group of mammals next to rodents (Jepsen 1970), and they comprise about 25% of the extant mammalian species (Nowak 1999). Mitchell-Jones (2003) estimated the global bat species to be more than 1000, and still Sotero-Caio et al. 2017) claimed that they are more than 1300 species categorized under 21 extant families. Chiroptera is classified in two suborders, Microchiroptera and Megachiroptera (Kingdom 1974), with former compris- ing about 756 species in 16 families (Wilson et al. 1996) and the latter 166 species, all in a single family, Pteropedidae (Wilson et al. 1996). However, there is no agreement among different workers on the num- ber of families, genera or species of bats (Tutle 1980; Hill and Smith 1983; Nowak 1999; Michell-Jones 2003), one reason being the subjectivity of the features used by different bat taxonomists that results in the variation of the number of taxa recognized by different investigators because of splitting or lumping of taxa (Hill and Smith 1983). About 200 species of bats have been recorded in Africa, in East Africa alone about 87, have been discovered (Kingdon 1974). According to Largen et al. (1974) 74 species of bats have been recorded in Ethiopia, including Eritrea. Of these, five species (namely: Asselia patrizii, Myotis morrisi, Myotis scotti and Kerivoula eriophora) are endemic to Ethiopia (Largen et al. 1974). Kruskop and Lavrenchenko (2000) also reported another new endemic species, Plecotus balensis, from the Bale Mountains National Park. The 74 species of bats recorded for Ethiopia and Eritrea belong to nine families and thirty-one genera, from which about one-third of the genera belong to the family Vespertilionidae (Largen et al. 1974). Bats play important roles in keeping the ecological balance, in seed dispersal and crosspollination of a number of plant species (Yalden and Morris 1975). In addition, bats can be used as experimental ani- mals in medical research (Williams-Whitmer and Brittingham-Brant 2001) and as food in some Pacific Islands. Their guano is used as a fertilizer (Nowak 1994). Chromosome data has greatly contributed to the understanding of the systematics, phyloge- ny and evolution of many groups of organisms, including bats. Many species of bats, especially those belonging to same genus, possess similar body structures, which has made bat classification a com- plicated matter for many years. Recently, based on chromosome information, it has been possible to distinguish many cryptic or sibling species of bats (Fredga 1977). Hence, chromosome data can provide useful information to understand the diversity, systematics and phylogeny of bats (Harada 1988). To date, no chromosome study of Ethiopian bats has been published. This study was undertaken with the main objective of generating karyotypic information of some Ethiopian species of bats. In this study bat species captured from several localities in Ethiopia were studied for chromo- some number and morphology. Bats from five families and nine genera were included with total number of 11 species. To date, here are only scanty reports are found on the chromosomes of Ethiopian bats. Materials and Methods Sites of bat specimens collection The bat species and collection sites are given in Table 1. The site selection was based on the early information gathered through literature and personal communications. Animal capturing Bats roost in a variety of places including in caves, ceilings of buildings, crevices in tree trunks and banana leaves. Those roosting in ceilings were captured by placing a bag of fishing net at the exit point, and trapped as they are coming out for feeding around the time of sunset. Those nesting in more open places such as large caves and warehouses were captured using large insect nets. Those nesting in banana leaves were collected by hand picking wearing thick leather gloves. Captured animals were brought to a nearby school or research institute and if close to Addis Ababa they were brought to Science Faculty for chromosome preparation and measurements of features of taxonomic importance. Chromosome preparation Chromosome preparation was done following Lee and Elder’s (1980) method cited in Hillis et al. (1996) with some modifications in time of incubation and varied. Animals were injected into the peri- toneal cavity with 0.1% aqueous colchicines solution at the rate of about 0.1ml per 10gm body weight. After 1hr, the animal was sacrificed by over etherization bones of the forelimbs were dissected, crashed with a bone cracker in about 1ml of hypotonic solution (0.075M KCl) and the bone marrow cells were allowed to swell for about half an hour at room temperature before centrifuged at 1000rpm for about 5min. The supernatant was removed and the pellet was resuspended in 1ml of fixative (methanol: glacial acetic acid, 3:1, v/v) and centrifuged after fixation for about 10min. Centrifugation and fixation were done several times. Finally, the pellet was suspended in 0.5ml of afresh fixative; a few drops of the suspension were splashed from a height of about half a meter on a clean glass slide, inclined at about 45 degree. The slides were allowed to air-dry at room temperature and stored away until needed for staining. Slides were stained in Giemsa stain in phosphate buffer (pH 6.8), rinsed in distilled water, air dried