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Asynchronous replication of constitutive heterochromatin on X chromosomes in female Mus dunni

Possible influence of facultative heterochromatin on the adjacent constitutive heterochromatin

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Abstract

Euchromatin DNA of one X chromosome in mammalian females, which becomes facultatively heterochromatinized, is known to replicate asynchronously late in S phase compared to its active homologue. In the females of a pygmy mouse species Mus dunni, which has prominent segment of constitutive heterochromatin as the short arm of its submetacentric X chromosome, we have observed asynchronous replication of c-heterochromatin arm as well, predominant number of cells showing the segment associated with the facultatively heterochromatic X to be terminating later. The preferential later termination of replication of the c-heterochromatic arm on the “lyonized X” appears to be due to the influence of facultative heterochromatin on the adjacent constitutive heterochromatin.

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Sen, S., Sharma, T. Asynchronous replication of constitutive heterochromatin on X chromosomes in female Mus dunni . Chromosoma 85, 119–126 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00344598

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00344598

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