Abstract
The giant polytene chromosomes of Drosophila melanogaster have long been of interest to the geneticist because of the visible map of the genome provided by their characteristic banding patterns1. An issue in the understanding of the molecular basis of chromosome banding has been whether the chromosomal DNA is replicated to the same extent in bands and interbands. Although various suggestions have been put forward the point has remained controversial2–5. We have isolated 315 kilobases (kb) of contiguous Drosophila genomic DNA6 which spans an interval of approximately 13 bands and interbands of the polytene chromosomes7. We report here the measurement of the relative level of DNA replication in polytene chromosomes of 84 adjacent restriction fragments of our cloned DNA. We conclude that there are no significant differences in the level of polyteny within the large band and between bands and interbands of this region. This result supports the ‘folded fibre’ model of polytene chromosome organization8, rather than models involving disproportionate replication along the banding pattern2–4.
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Spierer, A., Spierer, P. Similar level of polyteny in bands and interbands of Drosophila giant chromosomes. Nature 307, 176–178 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/307176a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/307176a0
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