Displacement of chromosomes in mitosis: a technique for assessing differential chromosome error.

To assess whether displacement--the appearance of individual chromosomes inside of the ring of chromosomes attached to spindle fibers--is a valid method of analyzing chromosome misdivision, displacement data from six healthy female subjects were compared with data for mitotic and meiotic nondisjunction. Statistical analysis indicated that nondisjunction and displacement are equivalent methods of assessing differential chromosome error. Tests for homogeneity of the data sets showed no significant heterogeneity for the mitotic data, but chromosomes 1, 2, 11, 16, 17, 19, and 20 were responsible for significant heterogeneity in the meiotic data.