Cytological Assessment of Meiotic Exchange in a Human Male with a Pericentric Inversion of Chromosome No. 4

Mitotic chromosome studies carried out on newborn male infant with congenital abnormalities and on his family members showed that the father and paternal grandmother were heterozygotes for an unequal pericentric inversion. The child appeared to have inherited a recombinant duplication/deletion chromosome. The results of meiotic studies carried out on a testicular biopsy from the father were used to ascertain the risk of recurrence of chromosomal abnormalities in future pregnancies. A model is presented which permits the analysis of C-banded diakinetic chromosomes as to whether crossing-over has occurred within the inversion segment or not. In the present study, it was estimated that either one or two cross-overs had occurred in 52% of the cells within the inversion segment. This would result in approximately 26% of the spermatozoa carrying either one of two types of duplication/deficiencies of chromosome No. 4.