Pachytene pairing in relation to sperm and oocyte numbers in a male-fertile reciprocal translocation in the mouse

Abstract

In adult males carrying the male-fertile reciprocal translocation T(2;4)13H, body weights, testis weights, and sperm counts were higher in heterozygotes than in homozygotes. Heterozygotes whose mothers were C3H/He exceeded their reciprocal counterparts in the same criteria. At 3–4 days of age, no significant differences between homozygous and heterozygous females were found in body weight, ovarian volume, or oocyte numbers, although mean oocyte volumes were somewhat larger in heterozygotes than in homozygotes. In homozygous males and females the synaptonemal complexes of rearranged chromosomes appeared as bivalents that were indistinguishable from normal bivalents. In most gametocytes of heterozygotes, the translocation was present in the form of a quadrivalent. The degree of pairing failure was greater in oocytes than in spermatocytes. Terminal asynapsis of quadrivalents was very rare in spermatocytes, but it affected one quarter of the oocytes. Only very few translocation configurations were associated with the XY bivalent. It is concluded that the number of sperm produced in male heterozygotes can match the general increase in vigor by the formation of a high level of fully paired quadrivalents, whereas a greater degree of terminal asynapsis in the quadrivalents of oocytes may indicate a slightly more deleterious effect of this translocation on oogenesis.