Satellite DNAs (stDNAs) of four Acomys species (spiny-mice), A. cahirinus,
A. cineraceus, A. dimidiatus and A. russatus, belong to closely related seq
uence families. Monomer sizes range from 338 to 364 bp. Between-species seq
uence identity was from 81.0% to 97.2%. The molecular phylogeny of the sequ
ences helps to clarify the taxonomy of this 'difficult' group. The A. dimid
iatus genome contains about 60 000 repeats. According to the restriction pa
tterns, repeats are arranged in tandem. The stDNA maps to the centromeric h
eterochromatin of most autosomes, both acrocentric and metacentric, but app
ears to be absent in the centromeric region of Y chromosomes. A well-conser
ved centromere protein B (CENP-B) box is present in the stDNA of A. russatu
s while it is degenerated in the other species.