Abstract
WHILE chickens and other avian species have been widely used as subjects in many areas of biology, especially embryology, karyological investigations in birds have been restricted because of inherent and procedural difficulties1. The relatively large number of small chromosomes seen in birds, the number and morphology of which cannot easily be ascertained, has been one discouraging factor. Another is the fact that the leucocyte culture technique developed by Moorhead et al.2, while generally applicable to mammals, is unsuitable for feral birds. We have found that parasites, which are normally found in the blood, proliferate in culture and interfere with the procedure. This communication describes a simple method for the display of avian chromosomes which has been used with a variety of tissues taken from both praecoces and altrices.
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References
Shoffner, R. N., World's Poultry Sci. J., 21, 157 (1965).
Moorhead, P. S., Nowell, P. C., Mellman, J., Battips, D. M., and Hungerford, D. A., Exp. Cell Res., 20, 613 (1960).
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FECHHEIMER, N., JAFFE, W. Method for the Display of Avian Chromosomes. Nature 211, 773–774 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/211773a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/211773a0
