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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Mar 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2017 Jan 18;18(3):175–186. doi: 10.1038/nrm.2016.171

Figure 4. BFB cycles and chromosomal rearrangements during telomere crisis.

Figure 4

a | Breakage–fusion–bridge (BFB) cycles can occur when telomere fusion generates a dicentric chromosome. During anaphase, the mitotic spindle pulls this dicentric chromosome towards opposite spindle poles, thereby generating the widely observed anaphase bridges. During cell division, the dicentric chromosome undergoes breakage and the broken ends fuse again, giving rise to another dicentric chromosome. b | BFB cycles can be interrupted by telomerase-mediated telomere healing. If this process occurs following breakage, it can result in the formation of a terminal chromosome deletion and loss of heterozygosity (LOH). Alternatively, broken chromosomes can be repaired by break-induced replication, yielding a non-reciprocal translocation. Repeated cycles of BFB that occur between sister chromatids can result in regional amplification and the generation of a homogeneously staining region (HSR) following chromosome staining. This HSR consists of multiple amplicons of inverted repeats. Excision of the amplified sequences out of the chromosome will generate circular double-minute chromosomes.