Studies in Spermatogenesis (Part 2 of 2)Stevens, N. M. (Nettie Maria)
Science
Studies in Spermatogenesis (Part 2 of 2)
Stevens, N. M. (Nettie Maria)
Sex; Spermatogenesis
This species was found in larval and adult stages on _Convolvulus
arvensis_ at Harpswell, Maine, in July and August. It shows the same
conditions as _Trirhabda_ and _Tenebrio_, so far as the unequal pair of
chromosomes is concerned, and is especially favorable for study of
synapsis stages. The number of chromosomes in the spermatogonia (plate
IX, fig. 36) is 22. Here the components of the unequal pair are the
small spherical chromosome and one of the several chromosomes third in
size, forming a comparatively small unsymmetrical bivalent (figs.
47-49). The spermatogonia occupy the outer end of each follicle, and
next to them comes a layer of cysts in which the chromosomes from the
last spermatogonial division are closely massed in the form of short
deeply staining loops at one side of the nuclear space (fig. 37).
Following this synizesis stage comes one in which some of the short
loops have straightened, their free ends extending out into the nuclear
space (figs. 38 and 39). Figure 40 shows the nucleus of a slightly later
stage in which the free ends of two straightened chromosomes are on the
point of uniting. In figures 41 and 42 the point of union of homologous
chromosomes is indicated in some cases by a knob, in others by a sharply
acute angle. In a slightly later stage (fig. 43), when all of the short
loops have straightened and united in pairs, the point of union is no
longer visible, all of the loops being rounded at the bend and of equal
thickness throughout. My attention was first called to this method of
synapsis by the conspicuous difference in number and length of loops in
the synizesis stage compared with the later bouquet stage just before
the spireme is formed. Following the synapsis stage shown in figure 43
comes one in which the loops lose their polarized arrangement and unite
to form a continuous spireme (figs. 44 and 45). In this form, the
heterochromosome pair could not be distinguished until the spireme
stage, and it is, therefore, uncertain whether these chromosomes remain
condensed after the last spermatogonial divisions and are hidden among
the massed and deeply staining loops of the synizesis and synapsis
stages, or whether they pass through the same synaptic phases as the
other chromosomes, condensing and remaining isolated at the beginning of
the spireme stage. An early prophase of the first maturation mitosis
(fig. 46) shows segments of the spireme longitudinally split, and in
some cases transformed into crosses which show a transverse division
also. Most of the equal bivalents have the dumb-bell form in the
spindle (figs. 47-49). One is ring-shaped, the ring being formed by
union of the free ends of the segment so that the spindle fibers are
attached to the middle of each univalent chromosome (fig. 49). This
method of ring formation, like that described by Montgomery ('03) for
the Amphibia, is of very frequent occurrence in the spermatocytes of the
Coleoptera. The dumb-bells are so bent at the ends (fig. 52) that the
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