An acrocentric chromosome is one in which the centromere is located very near to one of the ends of the chromosome, thus giving the chromosome a short arm and a long arm. The "acro-" in acrocentric refers to the Greek word for "end." There are five acrocentric chromosomes in human genetic material: 13, 14, 15, 21 and 22. All chromosomes in the mouse (Mus Musculus), however, are acrocentric- the centromere being at the top of each chromosome ('Mouse Genome Sequencing Consortium, Initial Sequencing and Comparative Analysis of the Mouse Genome, Nature, 2002')
