A proposed system for scoring structural aberrations detected by chromosome painting

Abstract

The advent of chromosome painting has brought the realization that structural aberrations can be far more complicated than previously imagined. Various investigators have devised their own nomenclature systems to deal with this difficulty, with the result that the terminology has become inconsistent and confusing. Recently, an international group of cytogeneticists experienced in chromosome painting gathered to address this issue. Results of the meeting are presented in this report, which provides a nomenclature system capable of describing chromosome aberrations that occur between painted and unpainted chromosomes, as well as aberrations involving only painted chromosomes. The nomenclature is flexible enough to describe accurately even the most extensively rearranged chromosomes. As a consequence of this flexibility, the scheme upon which the nomenclature is based differs substantially from other systems of aberration classification. We call this system the Protocol for Aberration Identification and Nomenclature Terminology (PAINT).

Preferential reduction of dicentrics in reciprocal exchanges due to the combination of the size of broken chromosome segments by radiation

“…Combination 3: Both chromosomes consisted of a large centric piece and a small acentric piece (LC+SA and LC+SA). To assess the relationship between break-points and the incidence of aberrations, only reciprocal translocations [t(Ba), t(Ab)] and dicentrics with a fragment [dic(BA) ace(ba)] (Tucker et al 1995) occurring as a simple rearrangement were used.…”

Effect of vitamin levels on biomarkers of exposure and oxidative damage—The EXPAH study

“…The CEDIA folate kit (Roche Diagnostics, Prague, Czech Republic) was used for the determination of folates in plasma. Chromosome aberrations were measured by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) (25,26).…”

Fluorescence in situ hybridisation

“…It is suitable mainly for detection of structural rearrangement, especially for analysis of induced translocations (Pinkel et al 1988;Natarajan et al 1991;Tucker et al 1993Tucker et al , 1994Tucker et al , 1995.…”

“…The contrast background enables to differentiate the remaining chromosomes in metaphases while the chromosomes with exchanges appear as two-coloured. The FISH-WCP is thus based on visualisation of specific, whole chromosomal chromatically distinguishable, hybridised sequences (Tucker 1994(Tucker , 1995.…”