† spiremen.
Cytology. Obsolete.
The tangled strands of chromosomal material seen in the early stages of cell division, formerly believed to be a single continuous strand (or two in a diploid cell, etc.); = skein n.1 2c.
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the world > life > biology > biological processes > genetic activity > genetic components > [noun] > other structures in mitosis
sun figure1877
aster1879
linin1887
skein1889
spireme1889
tetraster1890
cytaster1892
astrosphere1893
mid-body1896
restitution nucleus1927
synaptonemal complex1958
1889 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. 30 171 We call this stage, with Flemming, the ‘Knäuel-Stadium’ (skein stage), or ‘spirem’, or ‘mother-skein’.
1896 E. B. Wilson Cell 47 The chromatin resolves itself little by little into a more or less convoluted thread, known as the skein (Knäuel) or spireme.
1902 A. J. Cunningham Text-bk. Anat. 10 A convoluted cord of chromatin, the skein or spirem.
1905 H. Wager in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 570 The two spirems fuse together into a single thread in the sinaptic stage.
1905 H. Wager in Rep. Brit. Assoc. 570 The spireme thread first becomes longitudinally split.
1905 Amer. Naturalist 39 484 During synapsis the reticulum becomes transformed into a definite spirem.
1910 Encycl. Brit. VII. 714/1 As the spireme thread contracts, it segments into a number of short, and usually U-shaped, segments—the ‘chromosomes’.
1927 J. B. S. Haldane & J. S. Huxley Animal Biol. ii. 56 The chromosomes have begun to appear (spireme stage).
1936 Discovery May 161/1 The hypothesis of the continuous spireme, long given up by cytologists, is resurrected, and entirely inaccurate statements are made.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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