Karyology of Garra rufa from Semirom River, Isfahan Province (Actinopterygii: Cyprinidae)

Aim: To study the karyotype and chromosomal characteristics of Garra rufa from Semirom River (Karun River drainage) of Isfahan province.
Material and Seven specimens of Garra rufa was collected by a seine net and transferred live to the laboratory. After squashing of gill and head kidney tissues, the tissue was stained by Giemsa. The mitosis was triggered by PHA, followed by other routine procedures of karyology.
From the total 50 mitotic metaphases obtained from 7 individuals, 2n=48 had the highest frequency (52%), consisting of 34 metacentric, 12 submetacentric and 2 acro/telocentric chromosomes. The fundamental number of chromosome arms (NF) was 94. The total lengths of the smallest and largest chromosomes were 6.40 and 1.67 µm, respectively.
The diversity in chromosomal number, chromosomal formulae and the fundamental number of chromosome arms (NF), may indicate the presence of an interspecific polymorphism or the presence of several species in this species which need further investigations, especially from a molecular point of view.