01 Chromosomal Abnormalities Flashcards
Chromosomes, genes, non genes etc.
What is the Paris convention?
Naming the chromosome of the chromosome with p and q for the arms
Which is the short arm?
p
Which is the long arm?
q
Which is near the centromere? 1p1 or 1p3?
1p1 is near the centromere
Which is near the telomere? 12p1 or 12q4
12q4 is near the telomere
How much DNA in each cell? (Length)
2 metres
How big is a cell?
10um across
What’s the purpose of the centromere?
It’s where 2 sister chromatids are joined together
What’s the sequence of the centromere like and why?
It has a long stretch of repetitive DNA. This provides an attachment point for the spindle fibres at the kinetochore
What do telomeres do?
Prevents the chromosome ends being treated as broken ends
What is the telomere sequence and structure?
TTAGGG repeated for 10-15kb with a loop at the end
What’s the order of the cell cycle?
G1 (creating more cell contents), S (duplicating chromosomes), G2 (checking DNA for errors and repairing them), M (separating duplicated DNA), cytokinesis
What’s the order of mitosis?
Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase and Telophase
Why is is tougher to study meiosis over mitosis?
For meiosis you either need a male biopsy or a fetal ovary
What are the three stages of meiosis?
Synapsis, recombination, segregation
What is synapsis?
In Meiosis where homologous chromosomes are paired during prophase I. The chromosomes are duplicated in this state, consisting of two sister chromatids joined by the centromere.
What is the structure called of the homologous pairs together in meiosis?
A four stranded bivalent or a tetrad
What happens at the meiosis stage called recombination
Any of the 4 strands in the bivalent swap segments over at cross over events
How many cross over events take place in males meiosis?
Approximately 60
What is segregation in meiosis?
Where the bivalents separate, cytokinesis occurs, and each 4 gametes are carrying a unique combination of parental alleles
What stage of the cell cycle do you need for conventional karyotyping and why?
Metaphase of meiosis. Chromosomes are most condensed here so easier to analyse their number, size and structure
What is the resolution of karyotyping?
4-5Mb
Why is karyotyping bad?
Needs a lot of skill, it’s slow, and it’s expensive
What questions does FISH answer?
Is this specific sequence in my patient and if so, where?
How do you do FISH?
You have a fluorescent probe for the sequence of interest, you slightly denature the chromosomes so they keep their structure, but let the probe hybridise.
What’s good about FISH?
Has a high resolution. And you can use multiple colours at a time. Can see balanced translocations.
What phase of the cell cycle do you need for FISH?
Interphase or metaphase is fine.