CYTOGENETIC CHARACTERIZATION OF DEONI CATTLE

The cytogenetic characterization using 10 purebred Deoni cattle (5 males and 5 females) revealed the diploid chromosome number to be 60. All the 29 pairs of autosomes and Y-chromosome were acrocentric, while the X-chromosome was sub metacentric. The relative length of the autosomes varied from 1.792 to 5.354 per cent. The X-chromosome was the longest and contributed 5.592 per cent to the total genome. The Y-chromosome had a relative length of 1.903 per cent and was similar to that of the 28th autosome. The arm ratio, centromeric index and morphological index of the X-chromosome were 2.03, 0.33 and 3.80 per cent, respectively. The present study revealed that the chromosome architecture of Deoni cattle was similar to that of the other breeds of Zebu cattle.