The distribution of the highly conserved eukaryotic telomeric (TTAGGG)n sequence was investigated in chicken metaphase chromosomes using the FISH technique. Besides the expected telomeric locations, interstitial as well as centromeric locations of the (TTAGGG)n repeat were observed on several macrochromosomes. The microchromosomes display three discrete patterns of labeling with this repeat. The significance of this extreme-different distribution of the telomeric related sequence in chicken chromosomes may lie in pointing to structural events that might have occurred during the process of karyotype evolution.