Frequent recombination is observed in the distal end of the long arm of chromosome 14.

We have constructed a high-resolution map of the distal region (q32) of the long arm of human chromosome 14, with 11 loci including 6 variable number of tandem repeat markers. The map covers 66 cM in males and 53 cM in females. The recombination frequency in this region is more than five times that expected in a region of this physical size, and in our data set the frequency in males was higher than that in females at some intervals. This unusually high density of crossingover occurs in a part of chromosome 14 where translocations are frequently observed in somatic cells.