Understanding the mechanisms that underlie chromosome evolution may provide insights into the processes underpinning the origin, persistence, and evolutionary tempo of lineages. Here we present the first database of chromosome counts for animals (the Animal Chromosome Count database, ACC) summarizing chromosome numbers for ~18,000 species. We found remarkable similarity in the distribution of chromosome counts between animals and flowering plants. At larger timescales, selection towards a specific range might explain the similar distribution of chromosome counts between these two groups. Nevertheless, changes in chromosome number are still potential drivers of divergence among species at shorter timescales. We also found that while animals and plants exhibit similar frequencies of speciation-related changes in chromosome number, plant speciation is more often related to changes in ploidy. Based on the ACC, our analyses suggest that changes in chromosome number alone could help explain patterns of diversity within animal clades.

中文翻译：

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动物染色体计数显示相似的染色体数目范围，但与开花植物相比，动物的多倍体数目较少

了解构成染色体进化基础的机制可能会提供深入了解谱系起源，持久性和进化速度的过程。在这里，我们介绍了动物的第一个染色体计数数据库（动物染色体计数数据库，ACC），汇总了约18,000个物种的染色体数目。我们发现动物和开花植物之间的染色体数分布具有显着相似性。在较大的时间范围内，朝特定范围的选择可能解释了这两组之间染色体计数的相似分布。然而，染色体数目的变化仍然是在较短的时间尺度上物种差异的潜在驱动力。我们还发现，虽然动植物表现出与物种形成有关的染色体数目变化相似的频率，植物物种通常与倍性变化有关。基于ACC，我们的分析表明，仅染色体数的变化可以帮助解释动物进化枝内的多样性模式。