A human body contains 46 chromosomes which exist in a pattern of 23 pairs. A third copy of chromosome 21 exists with Down syndrome, which results in 47 chromosomes overall.

And on top of all this, there was another unexpected finding. It turns out that human Y chromosome DNA has been turning up repeatedly as a contaminant in studies of bacterial DNA.

The human genetic blueprint is deceptively simple. Our genes are tightly wound into 46 X-shaped structures called chromosomes. Crafted by evolution, they carry DNA and replicate when cells divide, ...

The U.S. government-run Human Genome Project revealed, among other things, the mass of DNA molecules — however, the weight of the chromosomes that house these molecules remained a mystery.

More about the experiments In their study, the researchers characterized the genetic architecture of body size in males and females by creating a large pedigree of over 8,000 beetles (the seed beetle ...

The Y chromosome centromere Miga and her colleagues sequenced and assembled came from an anonymous man in Buffalo, New York, whose DNA was also used for most of the Human Genome Project.

Figure 1. Isolated sex chromosomes at pachytene stage. (A–C) Hi-C contact maps showing reduced interactions between X chromosome and autosomes at pachytene stage, compared to zygotene stage. (A) ...