The platypus has five pairs of sex chromosomes and 21 pairs of autosomes. When a platypus cell undergoes meiosis, how many chromosomes will the daughter cells have?
1 Answer
Jan 1, 2017
Platypus has total 26 pair of chromosomes in each cell, hence one egg will receive half the number i.e. 26 chromosomes after meiosis.
Explanation:
Platypus is an exceptional mammal to have so many number of sex chromosomes, i.e. 10 in each individual. Sex of the progeny is determined by the sperm as it may either contain XXXXX or YYYYY.
It is amazing that during meiotic segregation of chromosomes, all X chromosomes go to one pole while all Y chromosomes go to another pole. Hence, two types of sperms are produced: 50% containing X and 50% containing Y.
