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A light microscopic atlas of meiosis inArabidopsis thaliana

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Abstract

An atlas of meiosis inArabidopsis thaliana, encompassing all stages from preleptotene to telophase II and early microspore formation, is presented in detail for the first time. The photomicrographs and descriptions are based on staining with the DNA fluorochrome 4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) combined with a spreading procedure, or haematoxylin-iron alum (HIA) staining. Despite previous reservations about the practicality of cytogenetic meiotic analysis inArabidopsis due to its small genome size, good-quality and clearly analysable preparations of all meiotic stages were obtained. This atlas of normal, wild-type meiosis is considered an essential prerequisite to informed analyses of meiotic mutants. Furthermore, extended prophase I chromosomes, particularly at the pachytene stage, offer considerable potential for producing a detailed cytogenetic map (karyotype) ofArabidopsis chromosomes with the additional prospect of high-resolution physical mapping based on fluorescencein situ hybridization (FISH) of defined DNA probes to these extended chromosomes.

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Correspondence to G. H. Jones.

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accepted for publication by J. S. (Pat) Heslop-Harrison

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Ross, K.J., Fransz, P. & Jones, G.H. A light microscopic atlas of meiosis inArabidopsis thaliana . Chromosome Res 4, 507–516 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02261778

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02261778

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