Relationship between nucleoli and sex chromosomes during meiosis of the male wood lemming Myopus schisticolor: a fine-structure study

Abstract

Electron microscopy of ultrathin serial sections has been used to study the origin and fate of a mass of fibrillar material (FM) during spermatogenesis in the wood lemming Myopus schisticolor. In the course of early pachytene, one of the two nucleoli completely disappears. The remaining nucleolus loses its granular portion and acquires a "round body" encased by the fibrillar moiety, and the restructuring is accompanied by the appearance of FM in the close vicinity of this nucleolus. During diakinesis, the FM increases in volume and density and selectively infiltrates the chromatin of the XY pair. The intermingling of sex chromosomes and FM is at its maximum in metaphase I, giving the XY chromatin a patchy appearance. The FM separates along with the chromatin during the ensuing anaphase I and is shed from the chromosomes during early telophase I. By the time the nuclear envelope is reconstituted, the FM is completely separated from the chromatin. It disintegrates in the spermatids. The FM could not be stained using the Ag-NOR technique. In the wood lemming, X and Y chromosomes show an end-to-end association without a detectable synaptonemal complex. The FM may contribute to the attachment of the two sex chromosomes to each other. Thus, the FM is considered to be a substitute for a chiasma, which normally guarantees proper segregation in anaphase I.