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Glossary Term
Glossary Term Heterochromatin
Definition
  1. The part of the genome characterized by relatively low gene density and the presence of highly repetitive sequences. Heterochromatin is more highly condensed than euchromatin.
  2. The X chromosome that is highly condensed in a mammalian cell that has undergone X inactivation. The inactive X chromosome resembles heterochromatin as defined above with respect to their state of condensation and genetic inactivity, although there is no change in the DNA sequence as a consequence of inactivation.

See also Euchromatin.

Contributing Projects:
Mouse Genome Database (MGD), Gene Expression Database (GXD), Mouse Models of Human Cancer database (MMHCdb) (formerly Mouse Tumor Biology (MTB)), Gene Ontology (GO)
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last database update
04/30/2024
MGI 6.23
The Jackson Laboratory