Chromosoma

, Volume 81, Issue 3, pp 431–437 | Cite as

A Drosophila melanogaster cell line tested for the presence of active NORs by silver staining

  • Enrica Privitera
Article
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Accepted:

Abstract

Silver staining was used to detect active NORs in a Drosophila melanogaster cell line (C1 82) characterized by dimorphic X chromosomes (XXL), one of the two Xs showing a marked increase in heterochromatin where the nucleolar organizer (NO) is located. The Q-banding technique was used to determine the karyotype characteristics of the line. Ag-positive NORs appeared only on structurally changed X chromosomes (XL), both in diploid and tetraploid cells, indicating that rRNA genes of XL are more active or numerous than those on normal homologues. A possible relationship between NOR stainability, the presence of an increased heterochromatic portion and the selective advantage of XXL cells, recurrent in numerous Drosophila female lines, is discussed.

Keywords

Developmental Biology Silver Staining Selective Advantage Nucleolar Organizer Tetraploid Cell 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 1980

Authors and Affiliations

  • Enrica Privitera
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute of GeneticsUniversity of MilanoMilanoItaly

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