Pachytene mapping of the male Chinese hamster.

Minced seminiferous tubules of male Chinese hamsters when treated with a mixture of trypsin (one part) and McCoy's 5a growth medium with 20% fetal calf serum (nine parts) at 4 degrees C, washed twice with the regular growth medium, incubated at 37 degrees C in growth medium for 4 h, and harvested without Colcemid and hypotonic pretreatments, gave excellent pachytene morphology for studies on chromomere patterns. The Giemsa banding patterns of all somatic metaphase chromosomes except the sex chromosomes of the hamster cells correspond well to the chromomere patterns of meiotic pachytene bivalents.