Among the many marvels of life is the cell's ability to divide and thus enable organisms to grow and renew themselves. For this, the cell must duplicate its DNA—its genome—and segregate it equally ...

As the cell proceeds through the stages of cell division (from left to right: interphase, prometaphase, metaphase, and anaphase), chromosomes become progressively more compact through a combination of ...

Neil Hunter, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, has discovered a crucial step in how chromosomes stay connected during the development for egg cells and sperm, ...

Robertsonian chromosomes are large chromosomes that form when the long arm of a chromosome breaks and fuses with another chromosome. They are the most common type of chromosome rearrangement in humans ...

Researchers at Cardiff University have uncovered how a particularly severe form of DNA damage arises—shedding new light on mutation processes that contribute to cancer and inherited genetic conditions ...

Robertsonian chromosomes (ROB) are a type of structurally variant chromosome that is created when two chromosomes fuse together to form an unusual bond. Found commonly in nature, these chromosomes are ...

A new study challenges prevalent models of chromosome formation during mitotic cell division. The study compared the dimensions of chromosomes in yeasts and humans and found that not only is the width ...

Mitotic chromosomes are pivotal for the inheritance of genetic material. Now, it is already known that chromosomes vary in dimensions among organisms. But what governs mitotic chromosomal size and ...

The authors set out to answer a simple question. Do all chromosomes have the same chance of being mis-segregated during cell division? To address this, Klaasen and colleagues turned to several types ...