Some problems about nomenclature.

[wtwt5237]

You know the different phases of meiosis is Early prophase I, Late prophase I, Metaphase I, Anaphase I, Metaphase II, Anaphase II, Late telophase II. But what do these 'pro', 'meta' and 'ana' come from? Latin? And what do they mean?
Another question: why is centromere called chiasmata when we come to talk about meiosis?

[blcr11]

Pro-, Meta- and Ana- all derive from Greek, I think. Pro- means before, Meta means between or with, and Ana- means away or from. I think that would refer to the most fully-condensed state of the chromosomes; prophase comes before, metaphase is with that state, and anaphase is going away from the state. The word “phase” derives from a Greek word meaning the appearance of a star. Maybe early cell biologists thought the condensed chromosomes—especially of meiosis—looked somewhat star-shaped? I dunno, because by that time the word also applied to a series of specific changes, like the phases of the moon, etc. But they must have also thought that chromosomes undergoing crossovers looked something like the Greek letter chi, because that’s where the word chiasma (pl chiasmata) comes from; shaped like a chi.

[wtwt5237]

Thanks very much.
But I have come across another question:
What's the difference between endodermis, Casparian strip and suberin?

[blcr11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endodermis

Acutally has all three. I'm not much of an anatomist--esepecially with respect to plants. If you google around a bit, you'll probably get as good an answer as you can get from me, anyway.