The sheep (Ovis aries, 2n=54) is one of the most economically important livestock species, especially in the Mediterranean Countries. Although linkage and radiation hybrid maps are available, cytogenetic maps found in Web sites are still very poor and built, among other things, on old standard karyotypes. The recent construction of standard karyotypes in domestic bovids, including that of the sheep, based on both high resolution banded models, use of molecular markers and homologous chromosome nomenclatures, has allowed us to present an advanced cytogenetic map of the sheep with 452 loci, most of them mapped in our laboratory by FISH technique on R-banded chromosomes. This cytogenetic map will be very useful in clinical cytogenetics (study of chromosomal abnormalities and their relationship with fertility), molecular cytogenetics (comparison of cytogenetic maps - order of the loci- between related and unrelated species), evolutionary cytogenetics (study of chromosomal rearrangements that have differentiated species during their evolution) and physical anchoring to specific chromosomal regions of both linkage and radiation hybrid maps.
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