A PROPOSED SYSTEM FOR SCORING STRUCTURAL-ABERRATIONS DETECTED BY CHROMOSOME PAINTING

The advent of chromosome painting has brought the realization that str uctural aberrations can be far more complicated than previously imagin ed. 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 o f cytogeneticists experienced in chromosome painting gathered to addre ss this issue. Results of the meeting are presented in this report, wh ich provides a nomenclature system capable of describing chromosome ab errations that occur between painted and unpainted chromosomes, as wel l as aberrations involving only painted chromosomes. The nomenclature is flexible enough to describe accurately even the most extensively re arranged 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 Protoco l for Aberration Identification and Nomenclature Terminology (PAINT).