Sex chromosome pairing during male meiosis in marsupials

Abstract

The pairing of the sex chromosomes at pachytene has been examined in twenty-two species of Australian marsupials, including four with complex sex chromosome systems. The axial elements of the sex chromosomes associate in all but one species. However, no synaptonemal complex has been observed between the axes of the X and Y chromosome in any of the examined species. Both the type of association between the sex chromosome axes, and the structural modifications of these axes are conserved within taxonomic groupings. In three species with complex sex chromosome systems, the t(XA), Y, A trivalents do not have a favoured relative orientation of the axes of the Y and A chromosomes, whereas in a fourth species with a t(XA₁), t(A₂YA₂), A₂ system the t(XA₁) and A₂ axes are in a cis arrangement with each other.