A DNA Determination in Developing Chick Marginal Tissue

Abstract

During the early part of this century the Mendelian factors of inheritance were found to be localized in chromosomal filaments of deoxyribonucleic acid (DMA) located in the cell nucleus. These inheritance factors were also ascribed to the cytoplasm by the German botanist, Carl Correns (1904). Within the past few years evidence has been presented that these inheritance factors, or, cytoplasmic DNA, can be found in a variety of organisms such as protozoans, algae, fungi, yeasts, molds, amphibians and other vertebrates. In many instances cytoplasmic DNA has been found to be associated with such cytoplasmic organelles as mitochondria (Ephrussi and Slominski, 1955; Luck, 1953; Stone and Miller, 1966; Chevremont et al., 1960), plastids (Chun et al., 1963; Gibor and Granick, 1964), and as distinct particles in the cytoplasm (Rabinovitch and Plaut, 1962; Prescott et al., 1962).