Novosibirsk revisited 24 years on: chromosome polymorphism in the Novosibirsk population of the common shrew Sorex araneus L

A Robertsonian fusion polymorphism in the common shrew (Sorex araneus L.), first described in Academgorodok near Novosibirsk (western Siberia) in 1970-72, was re-examined in 1994-95. The polymorphism in the 1970s involved chromosome arm combinations go, jl, mp and qr, i.e. each of these combinations was present in both a metacentric and a twin-acrocentric state in the population at that time. The twin-acrocentric morph for go occurred at low frequency in 1970-72 and was not observed in 1994-95. The polymorphism for arm combinations jl, mp and qr was still observed in 1994-95 and there was no significant difference in metacentric/twin-acrocentric frequencies compared with the previous sample. This is the third well-documented example in which the chromosome polymorphism in the common shrew has been found to be unchanged over a period of 20+ years. Although the polymorphism for qr may be associated with a chromosomal hybrid zone with a dine centre 200 km away, there is no definitive explanation for the other polymorphisms.