We described spontaneous minute sister chromatid exchanges (SCE) in telomeric regions of human and Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) chromosomes more than 10 years ago. These structures, which we called t-SCE, were detected by means of highly precise quantitative microphotometrical scanning and computer graphic image analysis. Recently, several authors using the CO-FISH method also found small SCEs in telomeric regions and called them T-SCE. The use of different terms for designating the same phenomenon should be avoided. We propose ter SCE as a uniform nomenclature for minute telomeric SCEs.
minute telomeric SCEs; chromosome nomenclature