An Achiasmatic Mechanism That Ensures the Regular Segregation of Sex Chromosomes in Male Meiosis in the Black Spongilla-fly Sisyra nigra (Retzius 1738), Sisyridae, Differs from the Mechanism Commonly Observed Within Neuroptera

The family Sisyridae, the Spongilla-flies, is notable for its phylogenetic position as a basal group within Neuroptera. Using the improved Schiff-Giemsa method, we analyzed the behavior of the sex chromosomes X and Y during male meiosis in Sisyra nigra (Retzius 1738). The diploid chromosome number in males was 2n = 12 + XY. In pachytene, X and Y chromosomes appeared positively heteropycnotic and loosely paired. In early diakinetic nuclei, autosomal bivalents typically exhibited one distally located chiasma, although bivalents with two chiasmata were occasionally observed. The X and Y univalents were isopycnotic with the autosomes, with the X considerably larger than the Y. During the first meiotic division, metaphase plates were radial, with autosomal bivalents forming a ring and X and Y univalents positioned centrally, well separated from each other. In metaphase cells, X and Y were located at the equator, strongly indicating their amphitelic orientation. However, they later formed a pseudobivalent from which X and Y segregated simultaneously with autosomal half bivalents at anaphase I. This achiasmatic segregation mechanism, touch-and-go pairing, has now been observed for the first time in a species carrying chromosomes with a localized centromere. At the second metaphase, two cell types were observed: one with the X chromosome and the other with the Y chromosome. The behavior of the sex chromosomes in S. nigra is notably different from that in other Neuroptera, where sex chromosomes exhibit syntelic orientation and distance pairing at metaphase I. The unusual mechanism of sex chromosome segregation in the family Sisyridae aligns well with molecular phylogenetic findings concerning the family’s basal position within the order Neuroptera.