DNA Determinations of Kidney Cell Cultures of Three Species of Monkeys

Photometric determinations of DNA have been made of Feulgen-stained nuclei of kidney cells, both in culture and from sections, of three species of Old World monkeys in the family Cercopithecidae having different diploid chromosome numbers, viz: Macaca mulatta (2n=42), Erythrocebus patas (2n=54) and Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus (2n=60). The mean diploid DNA values were found to be essentially the same for the three species. This result suggests that rearrangements in a basic chromosome set to produce chromosome number changes, rather than mechanisms such as aneuploidy or polyploidy, were involved in the evolutionary divergence of these Primate species. A certain proportion of the cells, especially in culture, do not contain normal diploid amounts of DNA. Such nuclei are interpreted as being aneuploid or polyploid. The origin and significance of such cells is discussed briefly.