Inversion heterozygosity in females of the newt Notophthalmus viridescens and its influence on chiasma distribution.

In a wild population of the American newt Notophthalmus viridescens 15 females out of a total of 94 were found to be heterozygous for a paracentric inversion which includes almost the whole of the longer arm of the smallest chromosome (XI). The inversion was recognized in preparations of lampbrush chromosomes because it transfers the sequential loops, which normally lie close to the telomere, to a position neighbouring the centromere. Because of inversion the transcriptional polarity of the sequential loops is reversed vis-à--vis the chromosome as a whole. In normal bivalents XI (both in male and female meiosis) each arm pair generally forms a single chiasma close to the telomeres (proterminal localization). In bivalents XI heterozygous for the inversion no chiasmata are formed between the mutually inverted longer arm pairs, presumably because they fail to synapse, but chiasma frequency in the non-inverted shorter arm pairs is increased, and the normal restraint on chiasma distribution in this arm pair is lifted. An explanation is offered in terms of the availability of recombination nodules, and the time of their association with the synaptonemal complex.