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Centromere

Definition
AI-generated

The centromere is the chromosomal region where sister chromatids attach to the spindle during cell division; it often lies within repetitive DNA and divides each chromosome into short (p) and long (q) arms in cytogenetic notation.

Topics
Molecular biology
Related
Chromosome Crossing Over Karyotype

Why it matters in GWAS

Pericentromeric regions can have unusual recombination, mapping quality, and variant-calling behavior, which affects imputation, LD patterns, and interpretation of associations near heterochromatin.

Example usage

"Reads mapping near the centromere were treated cautiously due to repetitive sequence and alignment uncertainty."

Chromosome Crossing Over Karyotype Satellite DNA Structural Variant
Related-term network

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References

  • McKinley KL, Cheeseman IM. (2017). The molecular basis for centromere identity and function. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol.
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