Inverse relation of number of melanophores to chromosome number in embryos of the newt, Triturus viridescens

✍ Scribed by Fankhauser, G. ;Schott, Barbara Willcox

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1952
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 710 KB
• Volume: 121
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401210105

✦ Synopsis

THREE FIGURES

From the beginning of our studies on heteroploidy in various species of salamanders it became clear that polyploid larvae do not show the gigantism typical for many experimentally produced polyploid plants. The size of the individual nuclei and cells, on the other hand, increases in direct proportion to the chromosome number ; therefore, the normal body size of polyploid larvae must be maintained by a compensatory reduction in the number of cells in all organs and tissues (Fankhauser, '41, '45a, b).

These converse changes in cell size and cell number are easily visible in living embryos in two types of cells, in the erythrocytes circulating through the gills, and, more clearly, in the pigment cells. The majority of polyploid and haploid embryos can be recognized by their pigment pattern soon after the nielanophores make their appearance. Not only