By Awodiran, Michael Olufemi, Oladimeji, Tofunmi Elizabeth, Bamidele, Atinuke Olufunbi and Akintoye, Maroof Adeniyi
Abstract
Chromosomal studies were carried out on samples of male and female African Pygmy hedgehog, Atelerix albiventris for the purpose of cytogenetic characterization and validation with the only existing report. Metaphase chromosomes were prepared from the bone marrow treated with 0.05% colchicine; well spread chromosomes were counted directly from resulting slides and photographed. A diploid chromosome number (2n = 48) was observed, with the Fundamental Number; FN being 93 in the male and 94 in the female. Autosomal fundamental number, FNa, was 90 in both sexes. The karyotype consisted of 14 pairs of metacentric, 6 pairs of acrocentric, 2 pairs of submetacentric and a pair of telocentric chromosomes. The X chromosomes were acrocentric while the Y chromosome is a icro-chromosome. From the karyotypic analysis in this study it was concluded that the diploid chromosome number of A. albiventris is consistent with the previous report but there are slight differences in their chromosome morphology.