Chromosome segregation in crane-fly spermatocytes: cold treatment and cold recovery induce anaphase lag

Anaphase lagging of autosomes was observed in 6.1 +/- 5.4% of the primary spermatocytes in untreated larvae of the crane fly, Nephrotoma suturalis. Lagging was induced by exposure of larvae to 6 degrees C and during recovery at 22 degrees C from exposure to 0.2, 2, and 6 degrees C. The incidence of anaphase lag was maximal at 80 to 90 min of recovery. Induced lagging was observed at that recovery time after exposures of only 2.5 h to 2 or 0.2 degrees C, but its incidence increased with longer exposures. As many as 85% of the cells in anaphase contained autosomal laggards after 61 h at 2 degrees C and 80 to 90 min of recovery. At 2 degrees C, cells reached the prophase-prometaphase transition, but spindles did not appear to form. Those cells proceeded through prometaphase during recovery, reaching mid-anaphase after 80 to 90 min of recovery. Chromosomes that lagged at anaphase during recovery from 2 degrees C were observed in living cells to be half-bivalents derived from bivalents that congressed to the metaphase plate. One or both half-bivalents of any bivalent could lag. In some cells, one half-spindle had more half-bivalents than the other. Cells with autosomal laggards often did not cleave, and in uncleaved cells the second division employed spindles having two, three, or four poles. The basis of induced lagging might be a lapse in spindle attachment or motive force application at the start of anaphase or a failure of chromosomes to achieve proper orientation before the onset of anaphase.