Summary
Activity of nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) was studied in cultured blood lymphocytes from 20 monozygotic (MZ) and 20 dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. The number of Agstained NORs, the degree of staining, and the frequency of acrocentric associations were used as criteria of the NOR activity, the acrocentric chromosomes being identified by G-banding. Analysis of intrapair concordance as well as of intrapair variance showed the number of Ag+NORs and the size of Ag-deposits to be highly heritable traits. Intrapair differences in acrocentric association frequency were not significantly higher in DZ compared with MZ twins.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bloom SE, Goodpasture C (1976) An improved technique for selective silver staining of nucleolar organizer regions on human chromosomes. Hum Genet 34:199–206
De Capoa A, Ferraro M, Menendez F, Mostacci C, Pelliccia F, Rocchi A (1978) Ag staining of the nucleolus organizer (NO) and its relationship to satellite association. Hum Genet 44:71–77
Denton TE, Howell WM, Barrett JV (1976) Human nucleolar organizer chromosomes: satellite associations. Chromosoma 55:81–84
Egolina NA, Davudov AZ, Benjusch VA, Zakharov AF (1981) Genetic determination of nucleolar organizer activity in human chromosomes (in Russian). Biull Eksp Biol Med 91:349–353
Evans HJ, Buckland RA, Pardue ML (1974) Location of the genes coding for 18S and 28S ribosomal RNA in the human genome. Chromosoma 48:405–426
Galperin-Lemaître H, Hens L, Séle B (1980) Comparison of acrocentric associations in male and female cells. Relationship to the active nucleolar organizers. Hum Genet 54:349–353
Gurbanov VP, Meshalkina LF, Barkhudaryan AS, Zhukova IB (1977) Intersatellite connections of human acrocentric chromosomes in associations (in Russian). Biull Eksp Biol Med 84:235–239
Hansson A (1970) The influence of culture method on the satellite association pattern in human lymphocytes: macroculture versus microculture. Hereditas 66:31–34
Hartung M, Mirre C, Stahl A (1979) Nucleolar organizers in human oocytes at meiotic prophase I, studied by the silver-NOR method and electron microscopy. Hum Genet 52:295–308
Hayata I, Oshimura M, Sandberg AA (1977) N-band polymorphism of human acrocentric chromosomes and its relevances to satellite association. Hum Genet 36:55–61
Kirsch-Volders M, Weltens R, Hens L, Susanne C, Defrise-Gussenhoven E (1980) Variability of NOR-staining in monozygotic and dizygotic twins (Abstract). Eur J Cell Biol 22:117
Markovič VD, Worton RG, Berg JM (1978) Evidence for the inheritance of silver-stained nucleolus organizer regions. Hum Genet 41:181–187
Mattei JF, Ayme S, Mattei MG, Gonvernet J, Girand F (1976) Quantitative and qualitative study of acrocentric associations in 109 normal subjects. Hum Genet 34:185–194
McCracken AA, Daly PA, Zolnick MR, Clark AM (1978) Twins and Q-banded chromosome polymorphisms. Hum Genet 45:253–258
Mikelssar A-V, Schwarzacher HG, Schneld W, Wagenbichler P (1977) Inheritance of Ag-stainability of nucleolus organizer regions. Investigations in seven families with trisomy 21. Hum Genet 38:183–188
Miller OJ, Miller DA, Dev VG, Tantravahi R, Croce CM (1976) Expression of human and suppression of mouse nucleolus organizer activity in mouse-human somatic cell hybrids. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 73:4531–4535
Miller DA, Tantravahi R, Dev VG, Miller OJ (1977) Frequency of satellite association of human chromosomes is correlated with amount of Ag-staining of the nucleolus organizer region. Am J Hum Genet 29:490–502
Nankin HR (1971) Satellite association in human lymphocytes and sodium citrate concentration of hypotonic (spreading) solution. Can J Genet Cytol 13:115–118
Phillips RB (1975) Inheritance of acrocentric association patterns. Humangenetik 29:309–318
Rieger R, Nicoloff H, Anastassova-Kristeva M (1979) “Nucleolar dominance” in interspecific hybrids and translocation lines—a review. Biol Zbl 98:385–398
Schmid M, Krone W, Vogel W (1974) On the relationship between the frequency of association and the nucleolar constriction of individual chromosomes. Hum Genet 23:267–277
Schwarzacher HG, Mikelsaar A-V, Schnedl W (1978) The nature of Ag-staining of nucleolus organizer regions. Electron-and light-microscopic studies on human cells in interphase, mitosis, and meiosis. Cytogenet Cell Genet 20:24–39
Taylor EF, Martin-Deleon PA (1981) Familial silver staining patterns of human nucleolus organizer regions (NORs). Am J Hum Genet 33:67–76
Van Dyke DL, Palmer CG, Nance WE, Pao-Lo Yu (1977) Chromosome polymorphism and twin zygosity. Am J Hum Genet 29:431–447
Warburton D, Atwood RC, Henderson AS (1976) Variation in the number of genes for rRNA among human acrocentric chromosomes: correlation with frequency of satellite association. Cytogenet Cell Genet 17:221–230
Warburton D, Henderson AS (1979) Sequential silver staining and hybridization in situ on nucleolus organizing regions in human cells. Cytogenet Cell Genet 24:168–175
Zakharov AF, Davudov A, Egolina NA, Benjusch VA (1980) Genetic determination of NOR activity pattern in human lymphocytes as studied in twins. In: The Europ Soc Hum Genet, 6–8 October 1980. Human Cytogenetics. Papers. Dubrovnik Symp, p 34
Zang KD, Back E (1969) Quantitative studies on the arrangement of human metaphase chromosomes. II. Influence of the preparation technique on the association pattern of the acrocentric chromosomes. Cytogenetics 8:304–314
Zankl H, Hahmann S (1978) Cytogenetic examination of the NOR activity in a proband with 13/13 translocation and in her relatives. Hum Genet 43:275–279
Zankl H, Nagl H (1980) Satellite associations and NOR staining in mitoses of trisomy 21 mosaicism. Hum Genet 55:115–117
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zakharov, A.F., Davudov, A.Z., Benjush, V.A. et al. Genetic determination of NOR activity in human lymphocytes from twins. Hum Genet 60, 24–29 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00281258
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00281258