Nucleolar organizer activity at meiosis in wheat–rye hybrid plants

Abstract

Nucleoli and nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) have been studied by a silver staining method in all meiotic stages of wheat–rye hybrid plants. The maximum number of nucleoli per cell scored at meiotic prophase and tapetum binucleate cells indicates that only the NORs of 1B, 6B, and 5D wheat chromosomes are active, whereas that of chromosome IR (SAT) of rye is inactive. However, at diakinesis, metaphase and anaphase meiotic stages only chromosomes 1B and 6B show Ag-NOR as was reported previously in somatic metaphase. The absence of Ag-NOR on chromosome 5D has been imputed to its low nucleolar organizer activity, not detectable by silver staining, because of the small number of rDNA clusters it carries. On the other hand, the meiotic behaviour of chromosomes 1B and 6B has been studied at metaphase I and anaphase I, using the Ag-NORs as cytological markers.Key words: nucleolar organizer, Ag-NOR, meiosis, wheat–rye hybrids.