THE STRANDEDNESS OF CHROMOSOMES: EVIDENCE FROM CHROMOSOMAL ABERRATIONS

Abstract

If cells are irradiated late in the mitotic cycle (late G2 or early prophase), at the following anaphase they frequently exhibit characteristic chromosomal configurations known as sidearm bridges. These are often interpreted as sub-chromatid aberrations and are taken as evidence that chromosomes are multi-stranded. This interpretation, although recently challenged, is supported by experiments based upon the normal replication that converts chromatids to full chromosomes. The rationale is that aberrations involving only one chromatid of a chromosome are converted by replication to chromosome aberrations involving both chromatids. After replication, therefore, there should be no chromatid aberrations remaining unless the initial aberration involved less than a full chromatid. The results show that chromatid aberrations do appear after chromosomal replication: at the second mitosis after irradiation. Another experiment shows that most such chromatid aberrations are not the result of errors in the replication of previous chromatid aberrations.