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chromosomes

Cultural  
  1. The small bodies in the nucleus of a cell that carry the chemical “instructions” for reproduction of the cell. They consist of strands of DNA wrapped in a double helix around a core of proteins. Each species of plant or animal has a characteristic number of chromosomes. For human beings, for example, it is forty-six.


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In humans, sex is determined by two chromosomes: an X-chromosome, which is female, and a Y-chromosome, which is male. (See sex chromosomes.)

Example Sentences

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A human, an octopus, and a coral may appear to have almost nothing in common, but their chromosomes still contain recognizable fragments inherited from an animal ancestor that lived more than 600 million years ago.

From Science Daily Aug. 25, 2026

The sex specific genetic switches were much less concentrated on the sex chromosomes than researchers anticipated.

From Science Daily Aug. 20, 2026

The results suggest that the repeated emergence of complex insect societies may depend more on biological traits specific to certain evolutionary groups than on the way chromosomes are inherited.

From Science Daily Aug. 15, 2026

Scientists have long known that TRF2 mainly operates at telomeres, the protective DNA caps located at the tips of chromosomes.

From Science Daily Aug. 2, 2026

But a second mechanism of generating genetic diversity exists: genetic information can be swapped between chromosomes.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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