Quinacrine fluoromicroscopy reveals a characteristic fluorescent pattern for each of the 23 pairs of the human mitotic chromosomes. The procedure is of particular value in the pairing of the C chromosomes, and in the differentiation of the morphologically similar chromosome pairs 4 and 5; 13, 14 and 15; and so forth. A study of trisomic Down's cases helped to identify chromosome 21 as the "bright-G" chromosome. Quinacrine hydrochloride (Atabrine) seems to give a less intense fluorescence, but a clearer pattern for visual observation, than quinacrine mustard.
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Alfi et al. (1971) studied this question.