Synaptonemal complex analysis of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) with Robertsonian translocations. I. Pachytene karyotype substaging of normal sheep.

Meiotic chromosome pairing behaviour in three normal sheep was surveyed by synaptonemal complex (SC) analysis at the electron microscope level. The SC karyotype of normal rams is composed of a sex pair, three metacentric or submetacentric pairs, and 23 acrocentric autosomal bivalents, with the total autosomal SC length ranging from 309 to 315 mircrons. Five nucleoli are terminally located on the three metacentric, and one large and one small acrocentric autosomal bivalents. XY morphology was used to divide pachytene into five substages. Although pairing abnormalities (mostly SC interactions) were recorded in an average of 16% of the spermatocytes, bivalent-XY association occurred in only 4.7% of the cells.