Ahmad Mahmoudi - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Urmia University, Iran
Atilla Arslan - Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey
Masoumeh Khoshyar - Department of Geological Science, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská ۲, ۶۱۱ ۳۷ Brno, Czech Republic
Boris Kryštufek - Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Prešernova ۲۰, SI-۱۰۰۰ Ljubljana, Slovenia

Although recent molecular data has advocated the distinct position of Arvicola persicus De Filippi from Iran, karyotypic and differential chromosome staining data, informative tools to describe biological diversity, are lacking. Here we present the first description of the chromosome complement of A. persicus from its type locality in Sultaniyeh, southern Alborz Mountains, Iran. Though the diploid chromosome number (۲n= ۳۶) and the fundamental number of autosomal arms (FNa= ۶۰) did not deviate from that reported for Arvicola amphibius sensu lato in Eurasia (۲n= ۳۶, FNa= ۶۰-۶۸), there appear to be significant differences between A. persicus and A. amphibius s.l. in terms of C-bands and NOR-bearing autosomes. Banded karyology, therefore, provides further evidence for delimiting A. persicus as a species, that is distinct from A. amphibius.

Alborz Mountains, Cricetidae,  chromosome, Karyology, species