Summary
The inheritance of nucleolus organizer regions (NORs) was investigated by examining the degree of silver-staining in individual acrocentric chromosomes in two successive generations. The study was undertaken in six Down's syndrome children and their respective parents. Quinacrine fluorescent polymorphisms were used to identify individual acrocentrics and to determine which of the child's acrocentrics were informative as to parental homologue of origin. Of the 66 acrocentrics in the six children, 31 were informative. The correlation between the degree of silver-staining in the child's chromosomes and the respective parental chromosomes of origin was highly significant (P<0.001), with a correlation coefficient of 0.90. The results suggest that the degree of Ag-AS staining is characteristic for a particular chromosome and that this characteristic is an inherited property.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bloom, S. E., Goodpasture, C.: An improved technique for selective silver staining of nucleolar organizer regions in human chromosomes. Hum. Genet. 34, 199–206 (1976)
Eliceiri, G. L., Green, H.: Ribosomal RNA synthesis in human-mouse hybrid cells. J. Mol. Biol. 41, 253–260 (1969)
Evans, H. J., Buckland, R. A., Pardue, M. L.: Location of the genes coding for 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA in the human genome. Chromosoma 48, 405–426 (1974)
Funaki, K., Matsui, S., Sasaki, M.: Location of nucleolar organizers in animal and plant chromosomes by means of an improved N-banding technique. Chromosoma 49, 357–370 (1975)
Geraedts, J. P. M., Pearson, P. L.: Fluorescent chromosome polymorphisms: Frequencies and segregations in a Dutch population. Clin. Genet. 6, 247–257 (1974)
Goodpasture, C., Bloom, S. E.: Visualization of nucleolar organizer regions in mammalian chromosomes using silver staining. Chromosoma 53, 37–50 (1975)
Goodpasture, C., Bloom, S. E., Hsu, T. C., Arrighi, F. E.: Human nucleolus organizers: The satellites or the stalks. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 28, 559–566 (1976)
Henderson, A. S., Warburton, D., Atwood, K. C.: Location of rDNA in the human chromosome complement. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 69, 3394–3398 (1972)
Henderson, A. S., Warburton, D., Atwood, K. C.: Localization of rDNA in the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) chromosome complement. Chromosoma 46, 433–441 (1974a)
Henderson, A. S., Warburton, D., Atwood, K. C.: Localization of rDNA in the chromosome complement of the Rhesus (Macaca mulatta). Chromosoma 44, 367–370 (1974b)
Howell, W. M., Denton, T. E., Diamond, J. R.: Differential staining of the satellite regions of human acrocentric chromosomes. Experientia 31, 260–262 (1975)
Hsu, T. C., Spirito, S. E., Pardue, M. L.: Distribution of 18+28S ribosomal genes in mammalian genomes. Chromosoma 53, 25–36 (1975)
Matsui, S., Sasaki, M.: Differential staining of nucleolus organizers in mammalian chromosomes. Nature 246, 148–150 (1973)
Miller, D. A., Dev, V. G., Tantravahi, R., Miller, O. J.: Suppression of human nucleolus organizer activity in mouse-human somatic hybrid cells. Exp. Cell Res. 101, 235–243 (1976)
Pardue, M. L., Hsu, T. C.: Location of 18S and 28S ribosomal genes in the chromosomes of the Indian Muntjak. J. Cell Biol. 64, 251–254 (1975)
Robinson, J. A., Buckton, K. E., Spowart, G., Newton, M., Jacobs, P. A., Evans, H. J., Hill, R.: The segregation of human chromosome polymorphisms. Ann. Hum. Genet. 40, 113–121 (1976)
Tantravahi, R., Miller, D. A., Dev, V. G., Miller, O. J.: Detection of nucleolus organizer regions in chromosomes of human, chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan and gibbon. Chromosoma 56, 15–27 (1976)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Marković, V.D., Worton, R.G. & Berg, J.M. Evidence for the inheritance of silver-stained nucleolus organizer regions. Hum Genet 41, 181–187 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00273100
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00273100