Cytological Evidence for Preferences of Identical over Homologous but Not-identical Meiotic Pairing

A spontaneous tetraploid/diploid chimera involving meiotic cells of a male individual of Euchorthippus pulvinatus gallicus was heterozygous for the C-banding pattern in chromosome pair 8. This allowed the study of the possible existence of competition in meiotic pairing between identical and homologous but not-identical chromosomes. The results suggest the existence of such a competition. An excess of bivalents formed by identical chromosomes was observed. It is suggested that during the pairing process slight specificity or activity differences between chromosomes with a high degree of resemblance would be responsible for the pairing preferences found.