Abstract
At meiosis in the male of the South American species Monodelphis domestica (Marsupialia: Didelphidae) there are some 21 chiasmata per cell and two-thirds of these are interstitial. Interstitial chiasmata are very rare in the female and there are fewer chiasmata per cell. These observations parallel those found in the only other marsupial (an Australian species) for which data are available. This similarity suggests that these differences between the sexes are of great antiquity, are present in two of the largest families of marsupials and may well be characteristic of other marsupials.
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Hayman, D., Moore, H. & Evans, E. Further evidence of novel sex differences in chiasma distribution in marsupials. Heredity 61, 455–458 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1988.138
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.1988.138
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