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Updated: May 28, 2026

Rapid Analysis of Chromosome Aberrations in Mouse B Lymphocytes by PNA-FISH
Published on: August 19, 2014
Chromosome segregation errors as a cause of DNA damage and structural chromosome aberrations
Aniek Janssen1, Marja van der Burg, Karoly Szuhai
1Department of Medical Oncology and Cancer Genomics Center, University Medical Center Utrecht, Universiteitsweg 100, 3584 CG, Utrecht, Netherlands.
None:
Various types of chromosomal aberrations, including numerical (aneuploidy) and structural (e.g., translocations, deletions), are commonly found in human tumors and are linked to tumorigenesis. Aneuploidy is a direct consequence of chromosome segregation errors in mitosis, whereas structural aberrations are caused by improperly repaired DNA breaks. Here, we demonstrate that chromosome segregation errors can also result in structural chromosome aberrations. Chromosomes that missegregate are frequently damaged during cytokinesis, triggering a DNA double-strand break response in the respective daughter cells involving ATM, Chk2, and p53. We show that these double-strand breaks can lead to unbalanced translocations in the daughter cells. Our data show that segregation errors can cause translocations and provide insights into the role of whole-chromosome instability in tumorigenesis.
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