Independent arrangement of bivalents and (or) quadrivalents in linear meiotic metaphase plates of rye

Abstract

The relative positioning of bivalents and (or) quadrivalents in flattened lateral views of metaphase I (linear metaphase plates) has been analyzed in three different plant types of rye: normal plants (type 1); heterozygotes for translocation T305W (type 2); and double heterozygotes for translocations T305W and TR01 (type 3). In all plant types all bivalents and (or) quadrivalents were identified using C-banding. The results indicate that quadrivalents show a preference towards being located in marginal positions of the linear plate, and there are also differences in position preferences between specific bivalents. Adjacently oriented quadrivalents and rod bivalents show a stronger preference for marginal positions than alternate quadrivalents and ring bivalents, respectively, but this does not indicate the existence of a fixed or ordered arrangement of chromosomes in the spindle since bivalents and (or) quadrivalents are independently located relative to each other.Key words: Secale, meiosis, metaphase, arrangement, multivalents, bivalents.