"A breakpoint or breakpoint region is not a tangible physical entity in a genome; it is an analytical construct arising only in the comparison of two genomes and, as such, exists or not, and has one set of characteristics or another, depending on the assumptions and methodology of this comparison. When we can identify two contiguous chromosomal segments in one genome, each of which seems orthologous to a different segment in another genome, and these latter segments are not contiguous, we can say that there is a breakpoint..."
excerpted from
David Sankoff (Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa.)
The where and wherefore of evolutionary breakpoints. Minireview. Journal of Biology 2009, 8:66doi:10.1186/jbiol162
