Incidence of chromosome 3, 7, 10, 11, 17 and X disomy in mature human sperm nuclei as determined by nonradioactive in situ hybridization.

In situ hybridizations were performed on mature human sperm cells with biotin-labeled alpha-satellite DNA probes specific for chromosomes 3, 7, 10, 11, 17, and X in order to reveal the disomy rate for each of these chromosomes. A total of 76,253 sperm nuclei from seven healthy probands aged 23-57 years were analyzed. An average of 12,000 sperm nuclei (at least 1500 per donor) showing hybridization were scored with each probe. The disomy rate as indicated by two distinct hybridization signals turned out to be similar for all chromosomes, ranging from 0.31% to 0.34%. There were no significant interindividual differences and no age correlation in the frequency of disomic sperm cells between the donors.