Working with canine chromosomes: Current recommendations for karyotype description

There is an increasing interest in genomic research on the domestic dog (Ca nis familiaris), However, these investigations are complicated by the canin e karyotype comprising 76 acrocentric autosomes of similar size and shape a nd the metacentric sex chromosomes, None of the numerous published ideogram s and karyotypes has yet been generally accepted. The present article gives a review of these descriptions of the canine karyotype, The two most recen t nomenclatures and the current efforts toward a standardized canine karyot ype made by the Committee for the Standardized Karyotype of the Dog are dis cussed in detail and recommendations for future use of a nomenclature for t he canine karyotype are given.