SummaryMitotically dividing cells of Secale cereale, Hordeum vulgare and Vicia faba were studied by indirect immuno¯uorescence using an antibody recognizing phosphorylated histone H3. The study revealed the following features: (i) the H3 phosphorylation starts at prophase and ends at telophase in the pericentromeric chromatin, is associated with the condensation of mitotic chromosomes and is independent of the distribution of late replicating heterochromatin. (ii) Compared with other chromosome regions, the pericentromeric chromatin is histone H3 hyperphosphorylated. (iii) The study of a semi-dicentric chromosome revealed that only at intact centromeres is the chromatin hyperphosphorylated at H3.

We have constructed a linkage map of bunching onion (Allium fistulosum L., 2n = 16) using an F(2) population of 225 plants. The map consists of 17 linkage groups with 212 bunching onion SSR markers and 42 bulb onion (A. cepa L.) SSR, InDel, CAPS or dCAPS markers, covering 2,069 cM. This is the first report of a linkage map mainly based on SSR markers in the genus Allium. With the 103 anchor markers [81 bunching onion SSRs, 11 bulb onion SSRs and 11 bulb onion non-SSRs (1 InDel, 9 CAPSs and 1 dCAPS)] whose chromosome assignments were identified in A. cepa and/or A. fistulosum, via the use of several kinds of Allium alien addition lines, 16 of the 17 linkage groups were connected to the 8 basic chromosomes of A. cepa.