The distribution of the telomeric repeats in common wheat and their role in the healing of broken ends of deleted chromosomes was studied. In situ hybridization to mitotic chromosomes was carried out using a synthetic probe that was derived from the sequence of the telomeric repeats of Arabidopsis thaliana. Sites of hybridization were visualized as double dots at both ends of each wheat chromosome. Variation in the strength of the signal that was detected among chromosome arms might be due to the variable number of telomeric repeats of each chromosome end. While signals were absent on normal chromosomes at the pericentric and intercalary regions, hybridization sites were detected at the broken chromosome ends of all deleted chromosomes included in the study. All telocentric chromosomes of multitelocentric lines of 'Chinese Spring' showed a strong signal at the centromeric region. The results suggest that a de novo chromosome healing mechanism exists in wheat involving the addition of the telomeric sequences to the ends of broken chromosome. Further evidence indicated that the healing of broken ends is probably intrinsic to replication during gametogenesis.Key words: in situ hybridization, telomeric sequences, deleted chromosomes, chromosome healing, telosome.