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Middle school biology - NGSS
Chromosome pairs
Genes are located in the chromosomes of cells, with each chromosome pair containing two variants of each of many distinct genes. Created by Khan Academy.
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- what are chromosomes made out of(11 votes)
- A chromosome is made up of proteins and DNA organized into genes. Each cell normally contains 23 pairs of chromosomes.(12 votes)
- Why do plants have more chromosomes than humans?(7 votes)
- Plants have more DNA genomes than animals due to two reasons: the ability of them to duplicate their genomes to reproduce and the susceptibility of them to mobilize. I hope i dont sound like a nerd(9 votes)
- If the chromosomes are found in the nucleus for multicellular organisms - I forget where they are for unicellular organisms. Does anybody want to help me out? Thank you(3 votes)
- Chromosomes are found within the nucleus for eukaryotic organisms, more specifically. Eukaryotes have membrane-bound organelles, including the nucleus, which contains their chromosomes. Some eukaryotes (like amoebas, for example) are unicellular, though many are multicellular.
Prokaryotes were all thought to be unicellular, though there is some debate about whether cyanobacteria colonies and biofilms could count as multicellular. They don't have membrane-bound organelles, but their chromosomal DNA is in a nucleoid, which "is an irregular-shaped region within the cell that contains the chromosomal DNA, in addition to RNA and proteins, of the prokaryote," in the words of nagwa's "Lesson Explainer: DNA in Prokaryotes".(12 votes)
- If there are so many cells in our body and each on has a nucleus with chromosomes, why is there only 46 chromosomes in a human while there are so many nulei that contain chromosomes.(4 votes)
- I could be wrong but I think they mean that every cell has 46 chromosomes but all of them are the same. For example, if you take Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there is only one book called Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, even though there are millions of copies.(5 votes)
- How does the black mulberry have the most chromosomes because i don't understand,i thought that the humans own were the most because of the abilities and things we have.(4 votes)
- P-plants... are smarter than us?(3 votes)
- According to the video, we have 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes. Does one of them come from the mother?(4 votes)
- You get 23 chromosomes from your mother, and 23 from your father. You have 46 total chromosomes. To answer your question... I'm pretty sure.(2 votes)
- not the guy with the light blub...(4 votes)
- How do like chromosomes make your hair type and like how stuff like that gets passed down?(3 votes)
- It's a bit complicated, but to sum it up, The chromosomes cause specific proteins to form. These proteins tell the cells what to become. an example would be if you had a curly hair allele, the proteins would tell your hair cells to form a curly shape to get those springy locks. Does that help?(3 votes)
- According to the video, we have 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes. Does one of them come from the mother and the other one from the father?(3 votes)
- I mean you get 23 chromosomes from your mom and dad so I would think so.(2 votes)
- what are chromosomes made out of(3 votes)
- it's made of DNA(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] - Hi, everyone. Today, we're gonna talk
about chromosome pairs. But first, I've got a question for you. Between a black mulberry plant, a Guinea pig, and a human being, which organism do you think
has the most chromosomes? The mulberry plant has green
leaves and delicious berries. The Guinea pigs are adorable, tiny mammals with multiple body systems and humans have incredibly powerful brains and the ability to form
complex social relationships. Before I tell you the answer, let's learn a little
more about chromosomes. Chromosomes are structures that
contain an organism's genes. And genes are the units of heredity passed from parent to offspring that affect an organism's traits. Chromosomes, and the genes they contain, are located inside an organism's cells. In multicellular organisms, the chromosomes are found
within the cell's nucleus. Many species have chromosomes
that come in matched pairs. For example, here's an image
taken with a microscope of chromosomes from a
typical human body cell. The chromosomes are laid
out in an organized way, allowing us to see that
humans have 46 chromosomes, which can be organized into 23 pairs. Each of these is a pair of chromosomes. This is one chromosome, and this is the second chromosome. These paired chromosomes are
called homologous chromosomes. Homologous chromosomes have
the same size and shape. They also contain the same
genes in the same locations. Remember, an organism's
genes affect its traits. Genes often come in different
variations, called alleles. Different alleles of a gene can cause different versions of a trait. In an organism, a pair
of homologous chromosomes may have the same allele for a gene, or they may have different
alleles for a gene. To help us understand this, let's take a look at
an illustrative example using pea plants. Pea plants can have
pink or purple flowers. These colors are determined
by two different variations, or alleles, of a single flower color gene. Pea plants have a copy
of this flower color gene on each of two chromosomes
in a homologous pair. A single pea plant may have
two copies of the pink allele, two copies of the purple
allele, or one copy of each. The color of flowers that
the pea plants end up with depends on how the alleles interact. But we'll cover that in another video. An image like this one, of an individual's chromosomes, lined up in an organized way, is called a karyotype. Scientists and medical professionals can examine an individual's
karyotype under the microscope to see if they might
have a genetic condition. This could show up as size differences between chromosomes within
each homologous pair or the presence of an extra chromosome. Now that you're a little more
familiar with chromosomes, let's return to the question I asked at the beginning of this video. Between black mulberry plants,
Guinea pigs, and humans, which organism has the most chromosomes? Any guesses? The black Mulberry plants do! These plants have a
whopping 308 chromosomes. Guinea pigs come in second
with 64 chromosomes. And like we said earlier, us humans only have 46 chromosomes. So we come in third. Are you surprised? Believe it or not, humans, with their big brains
and complex social structures actually have far fewer chromosomes than many seemingly
less complex organisms. Are black mulberry plants more complicated than we perceive? Perhaps. And perhaps there is more to understanding the role chromosomes play in determining traits. That's it for today, thanks for watching.