Two regions of acid phosphatase activity were resolved from liver extracts of chickens by starch gel electrophoresis. With respect to Region II, three phenotypes have been observed. These phenotypes were shown to be controlled by a pair of autosomal codominant alleles; Acp-2^A producing a fast moving band and Acp-2^B producing a slow band. Heterozygotes have, in addition to the fast and slow enzymes, a hybrid enzyme of intermediate electrophoretic mobility.

View full abstract

1) In the mouse, melanoblasts positive to the dopa-oxidase reaction appear in the basal layer of the epidermis at neo-natal stages, though they can not be detected in the epidermis of adult mice.
2) There was a significant difference in the number of the dopa-positive melanoblasts per unit area of the epidermis at the neo-natal stages between the two strains examined, C3H/HeNSa and C57BL/6.
3) The difference seems to be attributable to the difference in dopa-oxidase activity of the epidermal melanoblasts from the two strains as determined microspectrophotometrically.
4) The F₁ from the reciprocal crosses between the two strains exhibited an intermediate value in both the number of dopa-positive cells and the enzyme activity of the cells.
5) The F₂ showed a considerably wider distribution in the number of dopa-positive cells.
6) These results seem to suggest an inhibitory factor is involved in the strain difference in the dopa-oxidase activity and is controlled by more than two loci.

View full abstract

Three heritable patterns, F, S and FS, of blood albumin in silkworm larvae were demonstrated by means of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. F type larvae were characterized by a single band which migrated more rapidly to the anode than that of the S type larvae. F₁ hybrid between F and S strains showed an FS type characterized by having both zones, F and S. As a result of the mating experiments involving these phenotypes, it was found that these characters were controlled by a pair of codominant autosomal alleles, designated as Alb^F and Alb^S. It was clarified from linkage analysis that the allele was linked with narrow breast (nb) gene on the 20th chromosome with the crossover value of 6.2±1.02%.

View full abstract

1. A new type of progressive chlorosis was found to occur in reciprocal F₁ hybrids between Triticum dicoccum cultivar Hokudai (2n=28, genome formula AABB) and T. timopheevi var. typicum strain NIG (2n=28, AAGG); it was named “chlorosis type 2”.
2. Two complementary genes cause chlorosis type 2; they were designated by Chl₁ and Chl₂. T. dicoccum cultivar Hokudai carries Chl₁ on a chromosome in A or B genome, while T. timopheevi strain NIG possesses Chl₂ on a chromosome in G genome.
3. Other 19 emmer strains belonging to three different species carried only chl₁ gene, while all 13 strains of T. timopheevi possessed Chl₂gene; the species, T. timopheevi, is distinctly different from emmer wheat as to its population structure for the chlorosis genes.

View full abstract

Twenty patients associated with sex anomalies were screened for chromosome abnormalities. Among them, 13 cases were found to be chromosomally abnormal. They are 3 cases of Klinefelter's syndrome with a regular XXY sex-mechanism, 2 cases of Klinefelter's syndrome showing XY/XXY and XX/XXY cell mosaicisms respectively, 1 case of Klinefelter's syndrome with an XXXY (long) sex-mechanism, 1 case of male pseudo-hermaphrodite with an XO/XY mosaicism, 1 case of primary amenorrhoea with an XO/XX mosaicism, and 5 males with an unusually long Y chromosome. The remaining 7 cases did not deviate from a normal complement, being 46, XX in females and 46, XY in males.

View full abstract

The protein content of sterile anthers and vegetative parts of cytoplasmic malesterile wheat plants was estimated by the measurement of the nitrogen in alcohol-precipitable and -soluble fractions. Sterile anthers showed a remarkable decrease of nitrogen in the alcohol-precipitable fraction, as compared with normal fertile anthers. In contrast, a remarkable increase of nitrogen content especially of amide nitrogen occurred in the alcohol-soluble fraction. Similar abnormal conditions were observed in germinating embryos and young seedlings.
It is suggested that abnormal protein metabolism might occur initially at germination and continue during the growth of the plant, with a resulting retardation of growth, reduction of plant height and finally pollen degeneration.

View full abstract

1. The present report has dealt with the external characteristics, fertility and the somatic chromosomes of F₃ plants (TperRF₃) raised from Triticum persicum×Secale cereale.
2. Very many grains of F₃ seed were obtained from 25 F₂ individuals: 43 of them obtained from 3 F₂ plants, were sown in separate pots in October 1954 and '56; 34 grains germinated and 33 of them matured (Table 1). The germination of F₃ seeds showed variance according to their parents, and the percentage of germination was from 28.75 to 96.67 (Table 1).
3. The number of somatic chromosomes of 31 out of 33 matured individuals of TperRF₃ hybrids varied according to the parental plants showing 40-44, 34-54, 44-48 chromosomes respectively (Table 2).
4. Some individual differences of external characteristics were observed in F₃ plants, even between the plants having the same number of somatic chromosomes.
a, The length of culms was longest in F₃ individuals with 42 chromosomes (2n) raised from F₂ with 42 chromosomes (2n), and the somatic chromosomes increase or decrease from 42, the length of culms seems to decrease gradually. On the other hand, the individuals raised from F₂ with 35 and 46 chromosomes (2n) had longer length of culms, when they had much more chromosome number.
b, As to the length of spikes, it was longest in F₃ plants with 41 chromosomes, raised from F₂ with 42 chromosomes, and as the somatic chromosomes increase or decrease from 41, the length of spikes showed a tendency to decrease gradually. The other plants raised from F₂ with 46, however, showed longer spikes when they had smaller number of chromosomes.
c, As to the length of awns and the spike density, the number of florets per spikelet and the number of tillerings, there seems to be no correlation between those characteristics and the number of chromosomes of the parental plants.
d, The number of spikelets per spike, as it the case of culms, showed highest value in the individuals which had 42 chromosomes, raised from F₂ with 42 chromosomes, and as the somatic chromosomes increase from 42, the number of spikelets showed a tendency to decrease gradually. In the F₃ raised from F₂ which had 35 chromosomes, the individuals having smaller number of chromosomes were inferior in these characteristics to those having a large number of chromosomes, but on the contrary, the F₃ raised from F₂ which had 46 chromosomes showed the opposite result.
Generally speaking, the external characteristics of F₃ plants were somewhat superior to those of the parental F₂ plants.
5. Fertility of F₃ plants: As in Table 3, 28 of 30 F₃ plants showed fertility though it was not so high. The fertility was better than that of the parental F₂ plants (Table 3).

View full abstract

External characteristics, somatic chromosome numbers and meiosis in PMC's of backcrossed F₁ hybrids raised from amphidiploid TS (Triticum turgidum×Secale cereale)×S. cereale (TSRF₁) and TS×T. turgidum (TsturF₁) were described in details (Table 1).
In four out of five plants of back-crossed F₁, TS×S. cereale was 2n=28 (Fig. 1). The number 28 corresponds exactly to the sum of the gametic number of the parental plants, i.e., TS (T. turgidum, n=14+S. cereale, n=7)+S. cereale (n=7)=28. A plant, TSRF₁ -50-9, was 2n=27 and another one, TsturF₁, was 2n=40 (Fig. 23), in the latter 5 chromosomes being in excess of the expected number 2n=35, i.e., TS (n=21)+T. turgidum (n=14)=35. It is suggested that of 40 chromosomes 14 have been derived from T. turgidum and the remaining 26 might have resulted from duplications of 5 chromosomes in the mother plant TS.
All five TSRF₁ plants obtained were studied cytologically. Number of bivalents at MI in PMC's were 4-8 in F₁-48-1, 4-9 in F₁-48-7 and F₁-50-7, 7-14 in F₁-50-6, and 4-10 in F₁-50-9 (Figs. 15-22). Four plants gave the mode at 7_II; and the remaining one, F₁-50-6, at 10_II. The average number of bivalents per PMC was 6.14 and 7.25 respectively in the two categories mentioned above (Table 3). The bivalents were consisted of two elements of equal size, and their form was ring- or stick-shaped. In addition to bivalents V-shaped trivalents were observed very rarely; only 3 cases in 1720 PMC's.
Of 8-9 bivalents observed in three plants, TSRF₁ -48-1, -48-7, and -50-7, four may be due to pairing between the chromosomes of A and B genomes of T. turgidum, and the remaining 4-5 to the pairing between the chromosomes of R genomes brought together one from TS and the other from S. cereale. Taking in account the cytological surveys on hybrids between T. turgidum and S. cereale (Liljefors 1936; Nakajima 1950, 1952a, b), seven of 14 bivalents in TSRF₁-50-6 might have resulted from pairing between the chromosomes of R genomes come from TS and S. cereale, and the remaining 7 bivalents from pairing between the chromosomes of A and B genomes from T. turgidum. The genome constitution of TS (2n=42) might be of AABBRR=42 in the light of present observation on the meiosis in PMC's in TS×S. cereale.
In TsturF₁, PMCs in an anther were very few, the meiosis was highly abnormal, and normal bivalents were very rare (Figs. 24-26). A gigantic PMC (n=ca. 300) caused by the repeated nuclear divisions without cell division, was observed (Fig. 29).

View full abstract