巴氏小体是由端粒缔合形成的环状X染色体。

Walker C L, Cargile C B, Floy K M, Delannoy M, Migeon B R

Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Jul 15;88(14):6191-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.14.6191.

We examined Barr bodies formed by isodicentric human X chromosomes in cultured human cells and in mouse-human hybrids using confocal microscopy and DNA probes for centromere and subtelomere regions. At interphase, the two ends of these chromosomes are only a micron apart, indicating that these inactive X chromosomes are in a nonlinear configuration. Additional studies of normal X chromosomes reveal the same telomere association for the inactive X but not for the active X chromosome. This nonlinear configuration is maintained during mitosis and in a murine environment.

我们使用共聚焦显微镜以及针对着丝粒和亚端粒区域的DNA探针，在培养的人类细胞和小鼠-人类杂交细胞中研究了由等臂人类X染色体形成的巴氏小体。在间期，这些染色体的两端仅相距一微米，这表明这些失活的X染色体处于非线性构型。对正常X染色体的进一步研究表明，失活的X染色体存在相同的端粒关联，而活性X染色体则不存在。这种非线性构型在有丝分裂期间以及在小鼠环境中都得以维持。