The fragile breakage versus random breakage models of chromosome evolution.

ABSTRACT: For many years, studies of chromosome evolution were dominated by the random breakage theory, which implies that there are no rearrangement hot spots in the human genome. In 2003, Pevzner and Tesler argued against the random breakage model and proposed an alternative "fragile breakage" model of chromosome evolution. In 2004, Sankoff and Trinh argued against the fragile breakage model and raised doubts that Pevzner and Tesler provided any evidence of rearrangement hot spots. We investigate whether Sankoff and Trinh indeed revealed a flaw in the arguments of Pevzner and Tesler. We show that Sankoff and Trinh's synteny block identification algorithm makes erroneous identifications even in small toy examples and that their parameters do not reflect the realities of the comparative genomic arch

SUBMITTER: Peng Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1378107 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature