[Biometrical evaluation of univalent behaviour in meiotic mutants of Pisum sativum]

Asynaptic and desynaptic mutants are characterized by the appearance of univalents in the course of meiosis. Their spatial arrangement in the spindle apparatus of metaphase I was cytologically investigated and the findings were statistically analysed. The great majority of our material could be fitted to a Polya-distribution. For the parameters of this distribution, point- and intervalestimations were performed by the maximum likelihood method, separately for each genotype and each univalent class. From the position of the estimates in the different classes, it can be concluded that in all genotypes under consideration a high number of bivalents increases the probability of the remaining univalents being arranged in the metaphase plate. The mutual interference of the univalents themselves differs from genotype to genotype: when the number of bivalents is low, each univalent that happens to be arranged in the metaphase plate raises the probability that the remaining univalents will migrate into the metaphase plate, too. In some cases, the mutual interference of the univalents is reduced when the number of bivalents increases; in other cases this interference is merely maintained. Finally, we tried to interpret the cytological and statistical findings by structural and functional changes of the spindle apparatus brought about by the existence of univalents.