• Dr. Dipan Adhikari

The cytological investigations and analysis of fungi remains as an unexplored area in mycological research. Owing to its minuscule morphology and very short period of division, in addition to partial penetration of present stains as a result of retention of nuclear envelope during division, fungal chromosome remained as very unpopular subject of scientific interest. Over the years numerous attempts have been made to elucidate the finer details of the nuclear as well as its divisional stages during vegetative filaments mainly from the meiospores. Over the years, we can come across few well known techniques like mapping the gene of interest with linkage groups by recombinational analysis, light microscopic observations of meiotic chromosomes, electron microscopic observations of synaptonemal complexes of homologus chromosomes, and separation of individual chromosomes as bands in pulse field gel electrophoresis. But presently, a good number of high throughput investigational devices are also available which can be easily accomplished to get the inner findings done. The rapidly developing, large-scale use of electron microscopy today has made the study of these “critical minutes” lucid. Owing to which the whole structural cytology has entered a new era, so impressively, that the intricate characters of a cell are primarily interpreted as an electron image. From the early 1980’s the wide use of pulse field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) has yielded fascination results about the occurrence of intraspecific chromosome polymorphisms, which is a very common phenomenon in fungal chromosomes. These intraspecific polymorphs are somewhat interpreted as a cytological marker of chromosomal variation in size and number between strains. Except these methods, PFGE coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism genetic linkage analyses are widely employed to elucidate the inconsistencies occurred through light microscopy. Analysis of the ultrastructure of chromosome and chromatin materials has not only been fascinating because of its novelty but also can highlight on the chromatin compaction into condensed chromosomes during nuclear division and migration in vegetative filaments. Presently, all these highthroughput devices are being exploited to expose the finer nuances of fungal chromosomes.

Higher Fungi, cytology, propionic orcein staining, PFGE, SEM, EM.

"Chromosomal Studies in Higher Fungi: Challenges for Cytological Investigation.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no.1808-1814, May-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1905T58.pdf

"Chromosomal Studies in Higher Fungi: Challenges for Cytological Investigation.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 5, page no. pp1808-1814, May-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1905T58.pdf