acrocentric, a. Cytology.
(ækrəʊˈsɛntrɪk)
[f. acro- + -centric.]
Of a chromosome: having the centromere close to the end. Hence as n. Cf. metacentric a., telocentric a.
| 1945 M. J. D. White Animal Cytol. & Evol. ii. 20 A distinction still exists in practice between those [chromosomes] which have the centromere somewhere near the middle and those in which it is very close to the end. The former we shall call metacentric, the latter acrocentric. 1946 Nature 26 Oct. 587/2 The chromosome number of the parthenogenetic females generally amounted to 68, made up of six pairs of metacentric and twenty-eight pairs of acrocentric elements. 1949 I. F. & W. D. Henderson Dict. Sci. Terms (ed. 4), Acrocentric, a rod-shaped chromosome. 1962 New Scientist 22 Nov. 457 The chromosome involved is one of the four small acrocentrics—those having one arm much shorter than the other. |