The effects of distamycin A on gorilla-, chimpanzee- and orangutan lymphocyte cultures.
Lymphocyte cultures from the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orangutan were treated with the oligopeptide antibiotic distamycin A. This AT-specific DNA-ligand induces a distinct undercondensation in the quinacrine-bright heterochromatin of the gorilla and chimpanzee. This is also the case in human lymphocyte cultures. Distamycin A further causes an undercondensation in the nonheterochromatic bands 17q21 of the gorilla and 16q22 of man. No visible distamycin A-sensitive chromosome regions are determined in the orangutan. The in vitro treatment with distamycin A preserves the somatic pairings between the quinacrine-bright heterochromatic regions existing in the interphase nucleus until the succeeding metaphase stage. The phylogenetic origin of the quinacrine-bright and distamycin A-sensitive heterochromatin in the ancestor of man, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee is discussed.
D000818:Animals; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002871:Chromosome Banding; D002875:Chromosomes / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D004214:Distamycins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006071:Gorilla gorilla / Q000235:genetics*; D015186:Hominidae / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007621:Karyotyping; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000235:genetics*; D011148:Pongo pygmaeus / Q000235:genetics*; D011758:Pyrroles / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013045:Species Specificity
D004214:Distamycins; D011758:Pyrroles