Structural chromosome rearrangements

Abstract

The subject of structural chromosome rearrangements is an immense one, to which entire catalogs have been devoted. Indeed, there are theoretically an almost in fi nite number of ways in which chromosomes can recon fi gure themselves from the familiar, normal, 23-pair arrangement. While structural rearrangements are often thought of in terms of chromosome pathology, some rearrangements are fairly innocuous. In fact, a few such benign rearrangements (such as certain pericentric inversions of chromosome 9) are seen frequently enough to be considered polymorphic variants of no clinical significance.