Journal of Cell Science, Vol 71, Issue 1 111-120, Copyright © 1984 by Company of Biologists

JOURNAL ARTICLES

G and/or C-bands in plant chromosomes?

I Schubert, R Rieger and P Dobel

Similarities and differences become evident from comparisons of centromeric and non-centromeric banding patterns in plant and animal chromosomes. Similar to C and G-banding in animals (at least most of the reptiles, birds and mammals), centromeric and nucleolus-organizing region bands as well as interstitially and/or terminally located non-centromeric bands may occur in plants, depending on the kind and strength of pretreatment procedures. The last group of bands may sometimes be subdivided into broad regularly occurring 'marker' bands and thinner bands of more variable appearance. Non-centromeric bands in plants often correspond to blocks of constitutive heterochromatin that are rich in simple sequence DNA and sometimes show polymorphism; they thus resemble C-bands. However, most of these bands contain late-replicating DNA. Also they are sometimes rich A X T base-pairs, closely adjacent to each other and positionally identical to Feulgen+ and Q+ bands, thus being comparable to mammalian G-bands. Although banding that is reverse to the non-centromeric bands after Giemsa staining is still uncertain in plants, reverse banding patterns can be obtained with Feulgen or with pairs of A X T versus G X C-specific fluorochromes. It is therefore concluded that not all of the plant Giemsa banding patterns correspond to C-banding of mammalian chromosomes. Before the degree of homology between different Giemsa banding patterns in plants and G and/or C-bands in mammals is finally elucidated, the use of the neutral term 'Giemsa band', specified by position (e.g. centromeric, proximal, interstitial, terminal), is suggested to avoid confusion.