Chromosome Fusion in Humans - or Not?

[evograd (Blogging Graduate Student)]

@CrisprCAS9

She mentions that there are ‘some’ telomeres there, and fails to mention that the number there is many orders of magnitude more than what you’d otherwise expect outside of a subtelomeric region.

I assume she also didn’t mention that they’re found in a head-to-head orientation?

@CrisprCAS9

Alphoid sequences aren’t unique to centromeres in the same way that telomeric sequences aren’t unique to telomeres. Hopefully the reason that’s an unimpressive argument is obvious. Can you guess how many non centromeric alphoid sequences are found in the human karyotype? Hint: It is a very small number.

Indeed, as I note in this post:

Native Creationists and Chromosomal Fusion

I recently did two analyses into chromosome 2 fusion, which I’ll eventually include in a comprehensive blog post dedicated to the evidence for the fusion when I get around to it. For now, here’s the summary for those interested. It’s commonly argued, by Tomkins and other creationists, that two of the primary pieces of evidence for chromosome 2 fusion - the presence of telomeric repeats at the alleged fusion site and the presence of alphoid repeats in the alleged cryptic centromere - are actually very poor evidence because these repeats are in fact found all over the genome, not just in those locations alleged to be related to the fusion event. They argue that since telomeric repeats and alphoid repeats can be found all over the genome, there’s really nothing special about the sites claimed to represent the fusion site and cryptic centromere. In effect, they’re claiming that “evolutionists” are cherry-picking these sites because they fit the fusion story while ignoring all the other …