Question

if a piece of DNA breaks off from a chromosome and attaches itself to a nonhomologous chromosome at another location, what type of change has occurred?

Answer 1

Translocation;
to cause change from one place (or position) to another.

Answer 2

Chromosomal translocation

Step-by-step explanation:

Chromosome rearrangement is one of the ways through which mutation can occur in nature. It involves a change in the ordering of genes present on a chromosome as result of breakage and eventual rejoining of the broken ends. Rearrangement of chromosome can occur in four major ways;

• deletion
• duplication
• inversion
• translocation

Deletion is the outright loss of gene-carrying chromosomal segments which eventually results in the re-ordering of gene sequence present on such chromosome.

Duplication is the opposite of deletion and it involves the addition of extra copy of genes to a chromosome.

Inversion is the end to end reversal of a chromosome segment resulting in the re-ordering of genes present on such chromosome.

Translocation is the change of location of a chromosomal segment. It usually involves the movement of the segment from a particular chromosome into a different chromosome (non-homologous chromosome).

A piece of DNA which breaks off from a chromosome and attaches itself to another chromosome is therefore undergoing translocation.