Abstract
Zea mays plants containing two extra chromosomes were analyzed to determine if “distributive pairing” takes place in maize. No interaction between two univalent chromosomes generated in such plants could be detected at diakinesis or metaphase I. The chromosome disjunction in such plants was random at anaphase I. Furthermore, it was found that two chromosomes which are found as univalents in essentially 100 percent of the meiotic cells assorted randomly to the progeny. These experiments duplicated as closely as possible certain of Grell's (1962) experiments on “distributive pairing”. The author could detect no evidence for distributive pairing in maize. It was concluded that distributive pairing either does not occur in maize or that it occurs with a far lower efficiency than it does in Drosophila melanogaster females. Speculations on the reasons for these differences are included.
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Research supported in part by a grant (GM82-08) from the National Institutes of Health, U. S. Public Health Service.
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Weber, D.P. A test of distributive pairing in Zea mays . Chromosoma 27, 354–370 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00326171
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00326171