Medical Term:
pachytene
Pronunciation: pak′i-tēn
Definition: The stage of prophase in meiosis in which pairing of homologous chromosomes is complete and the paired homologues may twine about each other as they continue to shorten; longitudinal cleavage occurs in each chromosome to form two sister chromatids so that each homologous chromosome pair becomes a set of four intertwined chromatids.
Synonym(s): pachynema
[pachy- + G. tainia, band, tape]
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Examples: glitazone, GI cocktail, etc.
