State two differences between autosomes and sex chromosomes.
Answers
Differences between Autosomes and Sex Chromosomes
Autosomes:
- The chromosomes which do not represents the sex characteristics.
- Chromosomes number = 2n -1.
- Similar morphology in both male and female.
- Chromosomes number differ from species to species.
- Do not interfere in sex linkage.
Sex chromosomes:
- The chromosomes which are represents the sex characteristics called as allosomes.
- Chromosomes number = 2n.
- Different morphology in both male and female.
- Each organism has two Sex chromosomes.
- Interfere in sex linkage.
Answer:
Given below are the critical points to understand the difference between the autosomes and sex chromosomes:
The pair of chromosomes that regulate the somatic characters of the body are known as autosomes, whereas the pair of chromosomes that determines the sex of an organism, as they regulate the sex-linked traits are known as sex chromosomes or allosomes.
Autosomes are named or numbered from 1 to 22, while sex chromosomes are recognized by the letters as XO, XY, ZW and ZO.
The maximum number of chromosomes in our genome are the autosomes, and there are a few numbers of sex chromosomes in our genome.
Autosomes (22 pairs) are homologous in humans, whereas male sex chromosomes (XY) are non-homologous, while female sex chromosomes (XX) are homologous.
In autosomes the centromere position is identical but in sex chromosomes the centromere position os non-identical.
Autosomes prove the Mendelian inheritance and sex chromosomes show Non-Mendelian inheritance.
The number of genes carried by autosomes varies from 200 to 2000, but in case of sex chromosomes, the Y chromosomes contain only a few genes, while X chromosome has more than 300 genes.