Historical Introduction

Abstract

Lampbrush chromosomes were first seen by the pioneer cytologist Walther Flemming in 1878. Flemming and his student Wiebe, in the course of studies on the development of ovarial eggs (oocytes) of Amphibia and fish, found “merkwürdige and zierliche Anordnungen” (strange and delicate structures) in stained sections through the nuclei of young oocytes of the axolotl “Siredon pisciformis” (Ambystoma mexicanum). Flemming published an account of these observations in 1882, and Fig. 1.1 is a copy of his single illustration. It shows elongate objects each made up of thin strands arranged normal to the long axis, and transverse views of these same objects where the thin strands are displayed radiating in all directions from the axis. Flemming reported seeing similar objects in the nuclei of young oocytes of salamanders, and also in those of frogs, though in the latter the transverse strands were of smaller dimensions.