- Ectopia
In
medicine an ectopia is a displacement or malposition of an organ of the body. Most ectopias are congenital but some may happen later in life.
*Ectopia lentis is the displacement of the crystalline lens of the eye
*Ectopia cordis is the displacement of the heart outside the body during fetal development
*Renal ectopia occurs when both kidneys occur on the same side of the body
*Ectopic pregnancy occurs when the fertilized egg implants anywhere other than the uterine wall
*Cardiac ectopy occurs when electrical signals for a heartbeat originate in the wrong part of the heart muscle.In
molecular biology the term ectopic is used for at least three purposes:
* ectopic recombination refers to recombination between sites, usually containing identical or similar sequences, at different locations in the genome, leading to deletions, insertions, or chromosomal crossovers
* a gene is ectopically expressed when it is expressed in an abnormal place.
* intransgenic experiments,ectopic integration indicates the insertion of the transgene at a site other than its natural chromosomal locus
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.