ABSTRACT
Small plant chromosomes, such as those in rice, often show irregular condensation at mitotic prometaphase. Thus, the condensation pattern appearing at prometaphase was only a morphological landmark to divide the rice chromosomes into sub-regions. Characteristics of each rice chromosome with uneven condensation have quantitatively been analyzed by using image analysis methods. (Fukui K. 1985; Iijima K. and Fukui K. 1991) developed a method for identifying rice chromosomes based on a fl ow chart that consists of 11 discriminates, which classify specifi c chromosome groups.
