Biomedical subjects

E Gaginskaya

Publications and source records attributed to E Gaginskaya.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1995

Single stranded nucleic acid binding structures on chicken lampbrush chromosomes.

In chicken oocytes, proteins of the K/J family or their analogs, such as are known to be involved in mRNA processing in humans, are closely associated with nascent C-rich RNA transcripts on the loops of lampbrush chromosomes. Using labelled single stranded nucleotide probes and an antibody to protein K, these C-rich transcripts have been mapped to six different pairs of lampbrush loops situated on 3 macrochromosomes, the sex bivalent (ZW) and certain microchromosomes. Each of these loop pairs has a distinctive morphology. The observations represent cytological evidence of the connection between K-proteins and C-rich RNA transcripts. Another structure, the spaghetti marker of macrochromosome II, also preferentially binds C-rich homonucleotides. This spaghetti marker has a highly distinctive fine structural organization that is quite unlike that of lampbrush loops. Its proteins are not recognised by antibodies to protein K. Homonucleotide binding loops are recommended as potentially extremely valuable as markers on physical maps of chicken chromosomes.

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PubMed1993

Avian sex chromosomes in the lampbrush form: the ZW lampbrush bivalents from six species of bird.

The ZW bivalent has been identified and characterized in detail in its lampbrush form in oocytes of chicken, quail, turkey, pigeon, chaffinch and sparrow. The sex bivalent in all six species looks like a single highly asymmetrical chromosome. Most of it has the typical lampbrush organization. The terminal one-fifth is relatively thick and condensed and bears only a few pairs of lateral loops: this condensed terminal region is the W chromosome; the part with normal lampbrush morphology is the Z. The two are connected by a single near terminal chiasma. The fine scale morphology and arrangement of loops and markers on Z and W chromosomes are described for each species and lampbrush maps have been constructed. The identification of the lampbrush sex bivalent is based on the following criteria. The asymmetrical chromosome has two centromere regions. In the interstitial region of the asymmetrical chromosome where the junction between Z and W chromosomes is supposed to be, there are telomere-specific loops and telomeric DNA sequences and there is good morphological evidence for the presence of a chiasma. There are W chromosome specific DNA sequences in the region of the asymmetrical lampbrush chromosome that is thought to represent the W. Breed-specific variations in the morphology of the chicken W chromosome with respect to the sizes, numbers and arrangements of axial chromomeres and distributions of specified repeated DNA sequence families have been identified, offering one of the first examples of definitive correlation between a repeat family and a single chromomere. The lampbrush chromosomes of all the birds examined, except quail, terminate in distinctive free hanging loops. These are a novel feature in the sense that at the end of each chromatid there is a large transcription unit terminating in a cluster of telomeric DNA sequences.

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PubMed1992

A novel structure associated with a lampbrush chromosome in the chicken, Gallus domesticus.

At a site near the end of the short arms of lampbrush bivalent 2 in the chicken (Gallus domesticus) there is always a marker structure that appears in the phase-contrast light microscope as a solid object with diffuse edges measuring about 4 microns across. When examined by transmission electron microscopy in thin section, this object appears as a loose bundle of fibres. In some preparations individual fibres appear 15-16 nm thick, smooth in outline and solid in cross-section. In other preparations they are 32-38 nm thick, rougher in outline and ring-like in cross-section. High-resolution scanning electron micrographs of the chromosome 2 marker show it to be a loose bundle of spaghetti-like fibres that is quite unlike anything previously seen on a lampbrush chromosome of any organism. As with the sectioned material, fibres in some preparations were smooth and 15-16 nm in diameter, whereas those in others were more knobbly and about 35 nm thick. The fibres appear to branch and in some cases it is clear that the daughter strands of a branch have the same dimensions as the parent strand. Free ends are rare. Total length of fibre material present at one marker locus is estimated to be between 500 and 2000 microns. Similar structures are not present on the lampbrush chromosomes of quail, wood pigeon or chaffinch. The nature of this fibrous marker, referred to in this paper as the "spaghetti marker", is discussed in relation to lampbrush chromosome function and to events that take place during the lampbrush phase of oogenesis in chicken. Evidence is discussed in relation to the possibility that the chromosome 2 marker represents a novel form of nuclear RNP or the specific association of some structural protein with one chromosome locus.

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