Question

What are allosomes and autosomes?

Answer 1

Hint: They both are the different pairs of chromosomes.

Complete answer:
Autosomes
- The chromosomes which are apart involved in all the functions except for sex determination are called autosomes.
- There are a total of 22 homologous pairs of autosomes in human beings.
- Each autosome has several genes each of which performs its unique and specific functions.
- They determine the somatic traits.
- All the autosomes have the same location as the centromere.
- The number of genes varies from 200 to 2000.

Allosomes
- An allosome is a sex chromosome of an organism.
- Only one pair of allosome is present in human beings.
- These chromosomes contain genes that determine the sex of an organism.
- Allosomes have X and Y chromosomes which are paired together during the process of meiosis and this helps in sex determination.
- These chromosomes have a different location of centromere.
- The Y chromosome contains few genes only while the X chromosome contains more than 300 genes.

Note: In allosomes, the Y chromosome is slightly shorter than the X chromosome. The Y chromosome contains a gene, SRY which triggers embryonic development as a male.
- Humans have a total of 46 chromosomes which are in pairs of 23 in number.
- Allosomes have different size and behaviour in both males and females while the same copies of autosomes are present in both males and females.
- Autosomes show Mendelian inheritance while allosomes show non-mendelian inheritance.