Chromosomes

- structures that carries the hereditary units we receive from our

parents and transmit to our offspring.
23 father’s sperm / 23 mother’s ovum
= 46 chromosomes Chromosomal Abnormalities

Genes 1. XYY chromosomes

- each chromosome is composed of many individual hereditary – another abnormality in male; unusually aggressive.
units 2. Down’s syndrome
- a segment of DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid): – person obtaining an XXX chromosome.
o actual carrier of genetic information 3. Turner’s syndrome
o looks like a twisted ladder or a double stranded helix – instead of the usual XX chromosomes, female may be born
o has the same chemical composition. with only one X chromosomes.
- like chromosomes they occur in pairs. One gene of each pair 4. Klinefelter’s syndrome
comes from the sperm chromosomes and the other gene from – individual with an XXY twenty-third chromosome is
the ovum chromosomes. physically a male, with penis and testicles, but with
- one thousand are the total number of genes in each human marked feminine characteristics.
chromosomes, perhaps higher. Because the number is so high,
it is extremely unlikely that two human beings would have the
same heredity, even if they were siblings.
- One exception is, IDENTICAL TWINS, who because they
develop from the same fertilized egg have exactly the same
genes.

Two important attributes of genes:

1. Dominant traits
– genes that determines the form of the traits.
2. Recessive traits
– hereditary factor that remains latent unless it presents in both
member of the chromosomes.

Sex-linked genes
- pair 23 determines the sex of the individual and carries genes
for certain traits.
XX – normal female chromosomes ; XY – normal male chromosomes
- it is the father’s chromosome contribution that determines a child
sex.