Paradichlorobenzene and Other Chemicals in Chromosome Work

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The action of different prefixing agents including water and a dilute CaCl2 solution on plants with high chromosome number showed that all the solutions tried exhibited marked effect on the physical state of the plasma. Also the plasmatic constitution of the pretreated tissue differed from the appearance of one fixed directly in dye-acid mixture for a few seconds without any pre-treatment. For the clarification of the karyotypes, the best results have been obtained with paradichlorobenzene. It was used as a prefixing agent with a short schedule for temporary smears of difficult materials, particularly those with high chromosome number. The method comprised treatment of the root tips in a saturated aqueous solution of the chemical for 3 hours at 12-16°C., followed by 4-5 seconds heating just to boiling in orcein-hydrochloric acid mixture, then smearing in 1% aceto-orcein solution.