Abstract
THE idea that chromosomes can double repeatedly by “internal growth” without mitosis was put forward by G. Hertwig1 and others to account for the giant (polytene) chromosomes in the salivary glands of Diptera. Berger2 showed that in larvae of Culex (2n=6) the epithelial nuclei of the ileum undergo a succession of such internal divisions with a multiplication of separated chromosomes up to a maximum of forty-eight or ninety-six (thirty-two-ploid). Geitler3 described even higher grades of polyploidy in many tissues of Gerris (Hemiptera). He was at first inclined to attribute this to nuclear fusion; but following Berger's observations and his own further work, Geitler adopted the same explanation and has greatly extended the general theory of “endomitosis”4–6.
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References
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WIGGLESWORTH, V. Polyploidy and Nuclear Fusion. Nature 212, 1581 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2121581a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2121581a0
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