Generation of an Isodicentric Y Chromosome (IMAGE)

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

Generation of an Isodicentric Y Chromosome

Caption

Isodicentric Y chromosomes are generated during sperm production through aberrant crossing over between opposite arms of a palindrome. At left is two copies of the normal Y chromosome, each carrying the masculinizing gene SRY and a centromere. Also shown is one of the Y chromosome’s palindromes, depicted here as a pair of blue and red arrowheads pointing in opposite directions. The big “X” denotes a “crossing over” between opposing arms of the same palindrome on the two Y chromosomes. The result is the isodicentric Y chromosome diagrammed at right. The isodicentric has two copies of SRY, two centromeres, and is a mirror-image structure.

Credit

Tom DiCesare/Whitehead Institute

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Credit: Tom DiCesare/Whitehead Institute

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