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EM autoradiographic evidence that DNA synthesis occurs at recombination nodules during meiosis in Drosophila melanogaster females

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Abstract

Serial section electron microscopic autoradiography was used to examine the relationship between recombination nodules and 3H-thymidine incorporation during pachytene in Drosophila melanogaster females. For both ellipsoidal and spherical recombination nodules, the number of nodules that are associated with an autoradiographic grain is higher than that expected by chance; this observation is consistent with the hypotheses that recombination involves DNA synthesis and that recombination nodules are the sites of meiotic recombination. Moreover, general DNA replication (S-phase) and synapsis (synaptonemal complex formation) were found to be temporally distinct events, contrary to previous reports; Drosophila females therefore are not exceptional in this regard.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, B-022, University of California, 92093, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA

    Adelaide T. C. Carpenter

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  1. Adelaide T. C. Carpenter
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This paper is dedicated to Herschel Roman on the occasion of his 65th birthday in fond appreciation for his many and varied contributions to Genetics as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Genetics, University of Washington, Seattle Washington, U.S.A.

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Carpenter, A.T.C. EM autoradiographic evidence that DNA synthesis occurs at recombination nodules during meiosis in Drosophila melanogaster females. Chromosoma 83, 59–80 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00286016

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00286016

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