Elimination of the largest chromosome pair during differentiation into somatic cells in the Japanese hagfish, Myxine garmani (Cyclostomata, Agnatha)

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Abstract
The modal number of chromosomes in Myxine garmani was 14 in somatic cells from three tissues, 16 in spermatogonia, and eight in first spermatocytes. The amount of DNA in a somatic cell averaged 70.2% of the amount in a spermatogonium. The largest pair of chromosomes present in spermatogonia was absent from the somatic cells. These results indicate that, in M. garmani, chromosome elimination takes place during the early stages of cleavage, except in the ancestral germ line cells. The chromosome number of M. garmani is extremely small as compared with 48–54 in germ lines and 34–36 in somatic cells of the order Myxinida, and is the lowest in the literature on fishes.