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. 1970 Apr 1;45(1):43–53. doi: 10.1083/jcb.45.1.43

THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE XY CHROMOSOMAL PAIR IN HUMAN SPERMATOCYTES

A J Solari 1, Laura L Tres 1
PMCID: PMC2107993  PMID: 5458999

Abstract

The spatial reconstruction of the XY pair of chromosomes from human spermatocytes has been made by the study of serial sections 1000 A in thickness. The sex pair during zygotene-pachytene forms a condensed mass of chromatin that has two filamentous, electron-opaque cores: the long and the short core. During early pachytene both cores have a common ending region, about 0.4–0.8 µ long. This common end is a synaptonemal complex, and each of the cores forms a lateral element of that complex. The cores become more convoluted during middle pachytene forming "ringlike bodies." Nucleoli from spermatocytes have three distinct regions: (a) granular; (b) dense fibrillar; and (c) clear intermediate. Occasional association of the XY pair and the heteropycnotic "basal knobs" results in apparent association of nucleoli and the sex pair in a minority of cells. The evidence presented is interpreted as a strong support of the hypothesis of homologous regions in the human XY pair.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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