Consider polytene chromosomes (of Drosophila virilis)...
a) Should the packing ratio of polytene chromosomes be higher or lower than the packing ratio of human interphase chromosomes? (Human interphase chromosomes have a packing ratio of 20,000 base pairs / nm)
b) Around what value should the relative fold expansion be? And what does this mean in terms of why were are able to see polytene chromosomes under a conventional light microscope?
a) The packing ratio of polytene chromosomes will be higher than the packing ratio of human interphase chromosomes.
Explaination:
The polytene chromosome replicates many times without cell division forming hundreds to thousands of identical copies which align side by side next to each other to form giant interphase chromosomes. These polytene chromosomes are highly condensed and 100 times thicker than the chromosome found in humans. So, polytene chromosome have higher packung ratio than humans and therefore it is called as giant chromosome.
b) The relative fold expansion would be 100 folds as it is 100 times thicker than human chromosome. Due to its relative thickness, about 5000 bands are present in polytene chromosome. So, it is possible to observe the polytene chromosome by conventional microscopy.
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