Mitotic and meiotic chromosomes in Somatochlora metallica (Cordulidae, Odonata). The absence of localized centromeres and inverted meiosis

Abstract

Spermatogonial metaphase chromosomes were examined in two dragonfly species, Somatochlora metallica (Cordulidae) and Aeshna grandis (Aeshnidae), and the behaviour of male meiotic chromosomes was studied in S. metallica. Both in S. metallica and A. grandis the male mitotic metaphase chromosomes from cells treated with colchicine consisted of two equidistantly aligned chromatids, showing no primary constriction. In meiosis the chromosomes of S. metallica males showed telokinetic activity during the first meiotic division, and kinetic activity was restricted in the middle parts of chromosomes during the second division. The kinetic behaviour of the chromosomes both in mitosis and meiosis showed that they were holocentric. One chiasma arises interstitially in each bivalent in S. metallica male meiosis. The chiasmata retain their interstitial position at metaphase I and do not terminalize. At metaphase I bivalents co-orient with homologous telomere regions towards the opposite poles. Thus genuine dyads segregate at the first anaphase. Meiosis in these male dragonflies is thus pre-reductional or conventional, not post-reductional or inverted, as has been previously proposed.