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The list of organisms by chromosome count describes ploidy or numbers of chromosomes in the cells of various plants, animals, protists, and other living organisms.This number, along with the visual appearance of the chromosome, is known as the karyotype, [1] [2] [3] and can be found by looking at the chromosomes through a microscope.
The ZW sex-determination system is a chromosomal system that determines the sex of offspring in birds, some fish and crustaceans such as the giant river prawn, some insects (including butterflies and moths), the schistosome family of flatworms, and some reptiles, e.g. majority of snakes, lacertid lizards and monitors, including Komodo dragons.
The following is a list of genetic disorders and if known, type of mutation and for the chromosome involved. Although the parlance "disease-causing gene" is common, it is the occurrence of an abnormality in the parents that causes the impairment to develop within the child. There are over 6,000 known genetic disorders in humans.
Sperm also have only one set of 23 chromosomes and are therefore haploid. When an egg and sperm fuse at fertilization, the two sets of chromosomes come together to form a unique diploid individual with 46 chromosomes. [2] The sex chromosome in a human egg is always an X chromosome since a female only has X sex chromosomes.
In systems with two sex chromosomes, they can be heteromorphic or homomorphic. Homomorphic sex chromosomes are almost identical in size and gene content. The two familiar kinds of sex chromosome pairs (XY and ZW) are heteromorphic. Homomorphic sex chromosomes exist among pufferfish, ratite birds, pythons, and European tree frogs.
In humans and many other species of animals, the father determines the sex of the child. In the XY sex-determination system, the female-provided ovum contributes an X chromosome and the male-provided sperm contributes either an X chromosome or a Y chromosome, resulting in female (XX) or male (XY) offspring, respectively.
In the absence of a Y chromosome, the fetus will undergo female development. This is because of the presence of the sex-determining region of the Y chromosome, also known as the SRY gene. [5] Thus, male mammals typically have an X and a Y chromosome (XY), while female mammals typically have two X chromosomes (XX).
Most spiders have a variation of the XO system in which males have two different X chromosomes (X 1 X 2 O), while females have a pair of X 1 chromosomes and a pair of X 2 chromosomes (X 1 X 1 X 2 X 2). [1] Some spiders have more complex systems involving as many as 13 different X chromosomes. [1] Some Drosophila species have XO males. [10]