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In the Amazon, some species of Loricariidae are at risk of extinction due to habitat loss and overexploitation by the ornamental fish market. Cytogenetic data related to the karyotype and meiotic cycle can contribute to understanding the reproductive biology and help management and conservation programs of these fish. Additionally, chromosomal mapping of repetitive DNA in Loricariidae may aid comparative genomic studies in this family. However, cytogenetics analysis is limited in Amazonian locariids. In this study, chromosomal mapping of multigenic families was performed in Scobinancistrus aureatus, Scobinancistrus pariolispos and Spatuloricaria sp. Meiotic analyzes were performed in Hypancistrus zebra and Hypancistrus sp. "pão". Results showed new karyotype for Spatuloricaria sp. (2n=66, NF=82, 50m-10sm-6m). Distinct patterns of chromosomal organization of histone H1, histone H3 and snDNA U2 genes were registered in the karyotypes of the studied species, proving to be an excellent cytotaxonomic tool. Hypotheses to explain the evolutionary dynamics of these sequences in studied Loricariidae were proposed. Regarding H. zebra and H. sp. "pão", we describe the events related to synapse and transcriptional activity during the meiotic cycle, which in both species showed 26 fully synapsed bivalents, with high gene expression only during zygotene and pachytene. Both Hypancistrus species could be used may be models for evaluating changes in spermatogenesis of Loricariidae., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare no competing or financial interests., (© 2023. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.)

Loricariidae (Siluriformes) comprises ∼1026 species of neotropical fish, being considered the most diverse among the Siluriformes. Studies on repetitive DNA sequences have provided important data on the evolution of the genomes of members of this family, especially of the Hypostominae subfamily. In this study, the chromosomal mapping of the histone multigene family and U2 snRNA was performed in two species belonging to the Hypancistrus genus, Hypancistrus sp. "pão" (2n = 52, 22m + 18sm +12st) and Hypancistrus zebra (2n = 52, 16m + 20sm +16st). The presence of dispersed signals of histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 in the karyotype of both species, with each sequence displaying a varied level of accumulation and dispersion of these sequences between them was observed; in addition, U2 snDNA probe only showed positive results in H. zebra , which present this multigene in the terminal region of three chromosomal pairs. The obtained results resemble data already analyzed in the literature, in which the action of transposable elements interfere in the organization of these multigene families, in addition to other evolutionary processes that shape the evolution of the genome, such as circular or ectopic recombination. This study also shows that the dispersion of the multigene histone family is quite complex, and from this, these data serve as a point of discussion for the evolutionary processes that occur in the Hypancistrus karyotype.