MEIOTIC CHROMOSOME BEHAVIOR OF AN INVERTED INSERTIONAL TRANSLOCATION IN NEUROSPORA

Edward G. Barry ¹

¹ Department of Botany, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, N. C. 27514

Cytological study of meiotic chromosomes heterozygous for the T(III)39311 translocation confirm genetic evidence (Perkins 1972) that a section of linkage group I including the mating type locus has been inserted into linkage group II. Pachytene chromosomes when fully paired show that a segment from chromosome 1 has been inserted into chromosome 6. When pairing fails between the translocated segment in 6 and its homologous region in chromosome 1, buckles or loops are formed at pachynema in the deletion or insertion areas of the bivalents.—Acentric fragments and anaphase bridges occur at both meiotic divisions and in the subsequent two mitotic divisions in the ascus. These provide supporting evidence that the translocated segment is inverted with respect to centromere in its new location.—Unexpectedly the acentric fragment, formed by crossing over in the inverted translocated segment, persists without degradation in a micronucleus, and it replicates and divides in synchrony with the centric chromosomes in adjacent nuclei.