Segmental duplication on the human Y chromosome

Segmental duplication are blocks of DNA ranging from 1 to 400 kb in length which recur at multiple sites within the genome, sharing greater than 90% similarity. Multiple studies have found a correlation between the location of segmental duplications and regions of chromosomal instability. This correlation suggests that they may be mediators of some genomic disorders. Segmental duplications are shown to be flanked on both sides by large homologous repeats, which exposes the region to recurrent rearrangement by nonallelic homologous recombination, leading to either deletion, duplication, or inversion of the original sequence. rdf:langString