Abstract
IN previous communications1 it was pointed out that in protoplasm there are linear units forming either a brush heap of fibrils or having a symmetrical arrangement of them oriented end-on-end in parallel rows. Furthermore, it has been shown2 that, during the appearance of mitotic spindle fibrils, living matter possesses a continuity in structure which only fibrous units can adequately impart to it. In D. M. Wrinch's model3, a chromosome has been pictured as consisting of a net of polypeptide molecules in parallel forming the warp of the fabric, and of nucleic acid molecules constituting the woof. In my opinion, Wrinch's assumption of fibrillar units offers several possibilities, especially in regard to the postulates of genetics and to the findings of the cytologists as to the capacity of the chromosomes to swell, to contract, to grow, and to divide. On the other hand, it is known4 that fibrils of nucleic acid are optically negative and run parallel with the axis of sperm heads.
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References
Pfeiffer, H. H., NATURE, 133, 1054 (1936); Physics, 7, 302 (1936); Fujii Jubil. Vol. (Tokyo), 701 (1937); Frey-Wyssling, A., "Submikroskopische Morphologie des Protoplasmas und seiner Derivate", p. 73 (Berlin: Gebr. Borntraeger, 1938).
Pfeiffer, H. H., NATURE, 140, 770 (1937); Biodynamica, No. 35 (1938); Verh. V. intern. Zellf-Kongr. Zürich, 257 (Jena: G. Fischer. 1939).
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For a general introduction to the properties of the chromosomes of salivary glands of Diptera, see Darlington, C. D., "Recent Advances in Cytology", second edit., p. 175 (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1937); Bauer, Hans, in Hartmann, M., Fortschr. Zool., 1, 6; 2, 11 (Jena: G. Fischer, 1937); Geitler, L., "Chromosomeubau", 99–103 (Berlin: Gebr. Borntraeger, 1938); for the method of preparation: Heilborn, O., Ann. Agr. Coll. Sweden, 4, 89 (1937).
Astbury, W. T., "Fundamentals of Fibre Structure", 146 (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1933); together with Street, A., Woods, H. J., and Sisson, W. A., Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., A, 230, 75 (1931); 232, 333 (1933); Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 150, 533 (1935); 166, 76 (1938); Seifriz, W., Science, 88, 21 (1938).
Cf. Astbury and Bell, Florence O., NATURE, 141, 747 (1938).
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PFEIFFER, H. Studies on Chironomus Chromosomes with the Polarizing Microscope. Nature 143, 335 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/143335a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/143335a0
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