Disturbed centromeric meiotic pairing leads to chromosome breaks.
In Drosophila females an extended deletion of the second autosome pericentric heterochromatin Df(2R) M-S2-10 under heterozygous conditions results in the loss of autosome 2, formation of autosomal compounds and stable acrocentric chromosomes (free arms). The presence of an inversion in the opposite chromosome suppresses the clastogenic effect of the deletion. This effect is presumed to be due to the formation of the conjugational loop in the region of pericentric heterochromatin which subsequently breaks.
Chadov
B F
BF
Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk.
Artyomova
E V
EV
Buzykanova
G N
GN
Chadova
E V
EV
Podoplelova
M L
ML
D000818:Animals; D002503:Centromere; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D007446:Chromosome Inversion; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008540:Meiosis / Q000235:genetics*; D017384:Sequence Deletion