Comparison of nuclear DNA content of rodlet cells and erythrocytes in some freshwater teleosts |
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Authors: | D. L. Barber J. E. Mills Westermann |
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Affiliation: | Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada L8S 4K1 |
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Abstract: | DNA of rodlet cells and erythrocytes from three species of freshwater teleosts, Semotilus atromaculatus atromaculatus, Catostomus commersoni and Cyprinus carpio , was stained with the Feulgen reaction and examined by microdensitometry. Rodlet cells showed nuclear DNA content significantly different from erythrocytes of the same species, but the difference was less than a factor of C, assuming that erythrocytes reflect the normal 2C genome of somatic cells. In two species, S. atromaculatus and C. carpio , the rodlet cell nuclei contained less DNA than the erythrocytes; in C. commersoni they contained more. The identity of the rodlet cell is unknown; the results of these experiments lead to the rejection of the hypothesis that rodlet cells and erythrocytes of a species have the same DNA content, i.e. that the rodlet cell is a normal somatic component of fish tissue. |
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