Telocentric Chromosome (Molecular Biology)

Telocentric chromosomes appear by cytogenetic techniques to have their centromeres at the very end of the chromosome. True telocentric chromosomes do not exist, because the telomeres are at the tips of the chromosomes. In contrast to the centromeres, there is little to distinguish telomeres from euchromatin, but molecular biological and genetic analysis suggest that the telomere has a unique structure and function distinct from the rest of the chromosome.