What is a karyotype? How many chromosomes are there in a human karyotype?
June 28, 2020 | Education
| A karyotype is a set of characters (number, size, shape, etc.) of a complete set of chromosomes inherent in cells of a given biological species (species karyotype), a given organism (individual karyotype), or cell line (clone). Normally, a human karyotype includes 46 chromosomes of the diploid set, or 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes.
Cells belonging to organisms of different species have a certain number inherent to them, the size and shape of chromosomes in somatic cells, which is called the karyotype. Even if the number of chromosomes in somatic cells of different organisms is the same (for example, 48 chromosomes in potatoes and chimpanzees), the shape and size of the chromosomes will be different.
