Abstract
BACKGROUND: The subtribe Vampyressina (sensu Baker et al. 2003) encompasses approximately 43 species and seven genera and is a recent and diversified group of New World leaf-nosed bats specialized in fruit eating. The systematics of this group continues to be debated mainly because of the lack of congruence between topologies generated by molecular and morphological data. We analyzed seven species of all genera of vampyressine bats by multidirectional chromosome painting, using whole-chromosome-painting probes from Carollia brevicauda and Phyllostomus hastatus. Phylogenetic analyses were performed using shared discrete chromosomal segments as characters and the Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (PAUP) software package, using Desmodontinae as outgroup. We also used the Tree Analysis Using New Technology (TNT) software. RESULTS: The result showed a well-supported phylogeny congruent with molecular topologies regarding the sister taxa relationship of Vampyressa and Mesophylla genera, as well as the close relationship between the genus Chiroderma and Vampyriscus. CONCLUSIONS: Our results supported the hypothesis that all genera of this subtribe have compound sex chromosome systems that originated from an X-autosome translocation, an ancestral condition observed in the Stenodermatinae. Additional rearrangements occurred independently in the genus Vampyressa and Mesophylla yielding the X1X1X2X2/X1X2Y sex chromosome system. This work presents additional data supporting the hypothesis based on molecular studies regarding the polyphyly of the genus Vampyressa and its sister relationship to Mesophylla.