Question

In a human, how many chromosomes are present in a skin cell?

Answer 1

Hint: The number of chromosomes in the somatic cells of an organism are all the same, which means that the cells in the skin, the brain, the eyes, etc. all have the same number of chromosomes.

Complete answer
In the human body, there are two types of cells – somatic and gametic. The somatic cells are complete in the number of chromosomes, that is they have all the chromosomes whereas the gametic cells have only $50\%$ of the chromosomes so as to make up the original number of chromosomes upon fertilization.
The skin cell is a somatic cell, also known as vegetative cell which is the building block of the human body. It has 23 pairs of chromosomes, which is identical to those in the cells of the brain, eyes, etc. Therefore, a total of 46 chromosomes are present in the skin cells which, on cell division, remain the same. The skin cells undergo mitosis cell division in which the number of chromosomes is the same as in the parent cells.
The cells of the skin are diploid in chromosomes due to this nature of cell division, unlike the gametic cells which undergo meiosis cell division and are haploid in chromosomes – bearing only 23 chromosomes instead of 46.

Note:
The cell division is of two types in most of the organisms – mitosis and meiosis. The mitosis cell division takes place in the somatic cells which are the building block of the body of the organisms whereas in the gametic cells, meiosis division takes place which forms the reproductive cells.