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. 1979 Feb;91(2):255–274. doi: 10.1093/genetics/91.2.255

Lack of Spontaneous Sister Chromatid Exchanges in Somatic Cells of DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER

M Gatti 1, G Santini 1, S Pimpinelli 1, G Olivieri 1
PMCID: PMC1216365  PMID: 109350

Abstract

Neural ganglia of wild type third-instar larvae of Drosophila melanogaster were incubated for 13 hours at various concentrations of BUdR (1, 3, 9, 27 µg/ml). Metaphases were collected with colchicine, stained with Hoechst 33258, and scored under a fluorescence microscope. Metaphases in which the sister chromatids were clearly differentiated were scored for the presence of sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs). At the lowest concentration of BUdR (1 µg/ml), no SCEs were observed in either male or female neuroblasts. The SCEs were found at the higher concentrations of BUdR (3, 9 and 27 µg/ml) and with a greater frequency in females than in males. Therefore SCEs are not a spontaneous phenomenon in D. melanogaster, but are induced by BUdR incorporated in the DNA. A striking nonrandomness was found in the distribution of SCEs along the chromosomes. More than a third of the SCEs were clustered in the junctions between euchromatin and heterochromatin. The remaining SCEs were preferentially localized within the heterochromatic regions of the X chromosome and the autosomes and primarily on the entirely heterochromatic Y chromosome.—In order to find an alternative way of measuring the frequency of SCEs in Drosophila neuroblasts, the occurrence of double dicentric rings was studied in two stocks carrying monocentric ring-X chromosomes. One ring chromosome, C(1)TR 94–2, shows a rate of dicentric ring formation corresponding to the frequency of SCEs observed in the BUdR-labelled rod chromosomes. The other ring studied, R(1)2, exhibits a frequency of SCEs higher than that observed with both C(1)TR 94–2 and rod chromosomes.

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Selected References

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