Abstract
A single specimen of the grasshopper Melanoplus differentialis was discovered which was heterozygous for an interchange involving two of the largest chromosomes of the complement. The resulting quadrivalent occurred as a ring-of-four, chain-of-four, and, rarely, as two heteromorphic bivalents. Metaphase orientation and anaphase disjunction of some of these quadrivalents were recorded in living cells. The chain-of-four was stable in the configuration in which two pairs of kinetochores were oriented to each pole. The configuration in which three pairs of kinetochores were oriented to one pole and one pair to the other pole was also stable, but was shifted off the equator toward the pole to which three pairs of kinetochores were oriented. Given the nature of this quadrivalent the unusual stability of the 3∶1 configuration is expected from current hypotheses of chromosome orientation and reorientation.
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Wise, D., Rickards, G.K. A quadrivalent studied in living and fixed grasshopper spermatocytes. Chromosoma 63, 305–315 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00399493
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00399493