Why can't you see chromosomes under a microscope?

Answer 1

You can see them in the compound microscope provided you have teased out the dividing tissue properly and squashed it after putting a suitable stain.
Use Chironomus larva's salivary gland cells and watch with delight the polytene chromosomes.

Answer 2

Chromosomes Under Microscope

Answer 3

You can see chromosomes under a light microscope, it is just that the cells have to be in the right stage of the cell cycle (metaphase) in order for the chromosomes to look like the pictures in textbooks.

Answer 4

In a normal condition, the chromosomes inside a cell are too small to be seen under a light microscope.
But when the cells started to divide, chromatins will become highly condense and they for can be seen under microscope. When a cell is in metaphase, where the chromosomes are already replicated into sister chromatids, you can see it even more clearly.

Answer 5

Chromosomes are very visible under a microscope during meiosis or mitosis, when using the right dyes. That's actually how they got their name.

They're not visible during other times because the DNA isn't supercoiled.

Answer 6

You can see the chromosomes if the cell is going through mitosis or meiosis! During prophase-telophase the chromosomes have condensed and are visible.

Answer 7

The genetic material doesn't actually form into visible chromosomes until cellular division occurs. The rest of the time the DNA is present as a mass called chromatin.

For more info:
http://www.usd.edu/med/som/genetics/curriculum/1CHROM1.htm

Answer 8

They can be viewed under the correct conditions. Karyotypes for example...

Answer 9

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they first appear in prophase.