Chromosome pairing

Abstract

IN a useful article which appeared under this title recently1 H. L. K. W. says at one stage: "Nothing is known about the mechanism of chromosome pairing at the molecular level, but Watson and Crick (Nature, 171, 964; 1953) suggested that it involved the pairing of complementary nucleotide chains to form a double helix. There seems to be no alternative to this account for the specificity of pairing, and a more detailed hypothesis along these lines has been proposed by Sobell (Proc. US Nat. Acad. Sci., 69, 2483; 1972)". © 1973 Nature Publishing Group.