Meiosis in autopolyploid Crepis capillaris

Meiotic chromosome pairing of triploid and trisomic Crepis capillaris was analysed by electron microscopy in surface-spread prophase I nuclei and compared with light microscopic observations of metaphase I. This system allows identification and separate analysis of each chromosome of the C. capillaris genome. Prophase I trivalent frequencies are very high in all three trisomes and only slightly dependent on chromosome size. At metaphase I, on the other hand, trivalent frequencies are much lower and strongly dependent on chromosome size. There is no evidence for trivalent elimination during prophase I in this system, and the reduction in trivalent frequency at metaphase I can be explained by an insufficiency of appropriately placed chiasmata. The high prophase I trivalent frequencies far exceed the two-thirds expected on a simple model with two terminal independent pairing initiation sites per trisome, suggesting that multiple pairing initiation occurs. Direct observations reveal high frequencies of pairing partner switches (PPSs) in prophase I trisomes, which confirms this supposition. The numbers of PPSs per trisome shows a better fit to the Poisson than to the binomial distribution and their positional distribution along trisomes is random and non-localized. All these observations favour a model of pairing initiation in trisomes based on a large number of evenly distributed autonomous pairing sites each with a uniform and low probability of generating a PPS.by C. Heyting