Selective differential staining of sister chromatids of the facultative heterochromatic X chromosome in the female mouse

✍ Scribed by N. Kanda

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 546 KB
• Volume: 84
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-5915
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00399136

✦ Synopsis

Selective differential staining of sister chromatids for the facultative heterochromatic X chromosome in the female mouse has been achieved by the combination of two differential staining techniques; one for the heterochromatic X chromosome and the other for sister chromatids. Thermal hypotonic treatment moderately destroyed the chromosome structure except for the heterochromatic X in BrdU labelled metaphase cells, resulting in the selective sister chromatid differentiation of this X with Giemsa stain. This technique enables us to know the exact frequency of the spontaneous sister chromatid exchanges in the heterochromatic X without using 3H-TdR labelling for detecting the late DNA replication. The results indicate that the sister chromatid exchange frequency of the heterochromatic X chromosome is not affected by its late DNA replication during S phase, or by the genetic inactivation and the resulting heterochromatinization.