Analysis of proximal X chromosome pairing in early female mouse meiosis

The initiation and progression of homologous chromosome pairing at meiosis were investigated in female mice. The proximal end of the X chromosome was identified in fetal oocytes using fluorescence in situ hybridisation with the repeat copy probe 70-38. The X centromeres appeared to be randomly positioned in the nuclei from pre-meiotic interphase to leptotene. The observations indicated no pre-synaptic association for the proximal end of the X chromosome. There was a significant increase in the number of paired X centromeres from mid-zygotene to late zygotene. The proximal end of the X chromosome is therefore a generally late pairing region with no significant association seen before mid-zygotene. The centromeric heterochromatin of all chromosomes could be seen to associate into varying numbers of clusters during pre-leptotene through to pachytene. These clusters do not seem to be directly involved in bringing homologues together, as X centromeres did not consistently localise to the same cluster. Received: 1 August 1996; in revised form: 1 June 1997 / Accepted: 1 June 1997