Summary
Nineteen populations of the snail Cepaea nemoralis were sampled from a geographically restricted area and analysed for variation in chiasma frequency. Most variation occurs in the single A group bivalent which can have up to six chiasmata. This is higher than has previously been described. Chiasmata are not apparently localised except that when only one is present it is almost always central in position. Results suggest that interstitial chiasmata and terminal chiasmata may be under different genetic controls. Increased chiasma frequency on the A group bivalent is associated with increased between cell variance. It is suggested that this may be a means of compensating for the lack of release of genetic variability due to recombination by the other twenty-one bivalents which are of small size and nearly always have one chiasma. Significant differences between populations in both chiasma frequency and between cell variance were found; a limited amount of data suggests that these differences appear to be stable between successive years.
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References
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Price, D. Variation in chiasma frequency in Cepaea nemoralis. Heredity 32, 211–217 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1974.24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1974.24
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