Asynchronous replication of constitutive heterochromatin on X chromosomes in female Mus dunni. Possible influence of facultative heterochromatin on the adjacent constitutive heterochromatin.

Euchromatin DNA of one X chromosome in mammalian females, which becomes facultatively heterochromatinized, is known to replicate asynchronously late in S phase compared to its active homologue. In the females of a pygmy mouse species Mus dunni, which has prominent segment of constitutive heterochromatin as the short arm of its submetacentric X chromosome, we have observed asynchronous replication of c-heterochromatin arm as well, predominant number of cells showing the segment associated with the facultatively heterochromatic X to be terminating later. The preferential later termination of replication of the c-heterochromatic arm on the "lyonized X" appears to be due to the influence of facultative heterochromatin on the adjacent constitutive heterochromatin.