Background
A karyotype (Fig 1) is the characteristic chromosome complement of a eukaryote species. A karyotype is typically presented as an image of the chromosomes from a single cell arranged from largest (chromosome 1) to smallest (chromosome 22), with the sex chromosomes (X and/or Y) shown last. Historically, karyotypes have been obtained by staining cells after they have been chemically arrested during cell division. Karyotypes have been used for several decades to identify chromosomal abnormalities in both germline and cancer cells. Conventional karyotypes can assess the entire genome for changes in chromosome structure and number, but the resolution is relatively coarse, with a detection limit of 5-10Mb.
Read more about this topic: Virtual Karyotype
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)