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What Are These Regions Called Again - Reference Gaps On Chr13, Chr14, Chr15, Chr21, Chr22

Hi all, On Chromosome 13, 14, 15, 21, 22 of the human genome there are large gaps in the reference sequence at the beginning of the p-arm. There is a name for these large reference-less regions. Its always a little tricky to google something you can't remember the name of.

What are these regions called?

reference
• 3,387 views • link
updated by Devon Ryan Devon Ryan • written by richardc.gsc • richardc.gsc

2 answers

There's a gap track on the UCSC genome browser that will label the gaps with a useful descriptor. In general, the p-arms of acrocentric chromosomes (the ones you mentioned) contain highly repetitive sequences and are constitutively heterochromatic (i.e., highly compacted).

• 309 views • link
written by Devon Ryan Devon Ryan

Yeah, it's not euchromatic like I had originally thought. In the mid-2000s there was a lot of discussion in the literature about filling in the euchromatic gaps, but after reading this paper: http://www.stanford.edu/class/cs273a/papers.spr07/02/finishedHGCritique.pdf I see that the remaining large gaps are heterochromatic. The linked paper addresses the OPs areas of interest on the 5th page under the Acrocentric DNA heading.

• 78 views • link
updated by Devon Ryan Devon Ryan • written by Dan D Dan D

Euchromatic gap, perhaps?

• 0 views • link
written by Dan D Dan D

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