Abstract
Human neutrophil nuclei typically consist of three of four large heterochromatic lobes joined by thin, DNA-containing filaments. In addition, some lobes exhibit appendages of various sizes and shapes. Classical genetic and cytological studies suggest that some appendages contain specific chromsomes. The studies reported here provide the first detailed analysis of the spatial relationship between individual chromosomes and recognizable structures in neutrophil nuclei using fluorescent in situ hybridization. Analysis of DNA sequences in chromosomes 2, 18, X, and Y demonstrate that specific lobes in a population of neutrophil nuclei do not have a fied chromosome content. This result implies that chromosomes partition randomly among lobes during neutrophil differentiation. However, neutrophil nuclear topography is not entirely fortuitous. For instance, none of the sequences probed in this study mapped to a filament and most centromeres lie in clusters near the nuclear periphery. In addition, one of the X chromosome centromeres in females and the Y chromosome centromere in males consistently associate with specific nuclear appendages found in a subset of neutrophil nuclei. Chromosomes 2 and 18 occupy discrete nd separate territories within individual lobes and neither territory ever extends into a filament. Surprisingly, the sizes of these territories are not proportional to chromosome length, suggesting that individual neutrophil chromosomes vary in their degree of compaction. These results are discussed in the light of models that attempt to explain nuclear morphology in terms of chromosome spatial organization.