Techniques for the Study of Lampbrush Chromosomes

Abstract

This chapter will be primarily concerned with techniques that have been devised for isolating and studying the lampbrush chromosomes of Amphibia. No attempt will be made to cover conventional methods applied to whole oocytes for light or electron microscopy, though it is worth a mention that in my experience Sanfelice’s (1918) fixative is by far the most reliable for morphological studies with the light microscope on fixed, sectioned and stained oocyte nuclei. Two accounts of the procedures appropriate for isolating and examining lampbrush chromosomes are available in the earlier literature (Callan and Lloyd 1960, Gall 1966) but they do not include recent technical developments; several of these are to be found in Macgregor and Varley’s (1983) book on techniques for studying the chromosomes of animals.