Ectopia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In medicine an ectopia is a displacement or malposition of an organ of the body. Most ectopias are congenital but some may happen later in life.

In molecular biology the term ectopic is used for at least three purposes:

  • ectopic recombination refers to recombination between sites, usually containing identical or similar sequences, at different locations in the genome, leading to deletions, insertions, or chromosomal crossovers
  • a gene is ectopically expressed when it is expressed in an abnormal place.
  • in transgenic experiments, ectopic integration indicates the insertion of the transgene at a site other than its natural chromosomal locus