Application and potentiality of laser micro-irradiation of chromosomes in animal and plant cells

Full text: The classical methods of inducing genetic variation use chemical or physical mutagens applied to populations of cells. Since the development of laser techniques allows focussing a beam to a submicron spot, laser microsurgery of chromosomes was attempted. In mammalian cells, the nucleolus formation could be prevented. Also several chromosome damages were produced by focussing on specific chromosomes in prophase, metaphase and anaphase. Chromosomes of broad bean, maize, wheat, barley were dissected into small fragments. (author)