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Differential Staining of Nucleolus Organisers in Mammalian Chromosomes

Nature volume 246, pages 148–150 (1973)Cite this article

Abstract

THE in situ DNA-RNA hybridisation techniques to locate a certain genome fraction with unique nucleotide sequences1–6 have assigned ribosomal cistrons to the satellites of human D and G group chromosomes4,5. This is of particular interest because the satellites organise nucleoli in somatic7 and meiotic cells8–10. During the course of study on the Giemsa banding mechanism (unpublished) we found that the satellite bodies of human acrocentrics can be differentially stained with Giemsa after simple procedures including extraction of both nucleic acids and histones. The staining profile, herein referred to as ‘N band’, differed clearly from the Quinacrine, Giemsa, Reversed-Giemsa, Centromeric, or Giemsa 11 banding patterns11,12. In rat kangaroo chromosomes, the N bands appeared exclusively in the nucleolus organisers13,14, that is, in the secondary constriction of the X chromosome. Further application of this technique to other mammalian species strongly indicated that the N-band-positive sites coincide with nucleolus organisers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chromosome Research Unit, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo

    SEI-ICHI MATSUI & MOTOMICHI SASAKI

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  1. SEI-ICHI MATSUI
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  2. MOTOMICHI SASAKI
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MATSUI, SI., SASAKI, M. Differential Staining of Nucleolus Organisers in Mammalian Chromosomes. Nature 246, 148–150 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/246148a0

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