Chromosomes and Karyotypes

Abnormal Karyotypes

Down’s Syndrome is  a common genetic abnormality referred to as Trisomy 21. Instead of having the complement of 46 chromosomes of 22 homologous pairs plus 2 sex chromosomes, there are 47 chromosomes consisting of an additional Chromosome 21.

Karyotype
Standard Human Karyotype with 46 chromosomes. Both XX and XY also shown here.
The appearance of extra or missing chromosomes arises during meiosis in an event called non-disjunction. After fertilization, a zygote with an improper chromosome complement occurs.
Mitotic nondisjunction

Nondisjunction Diagrams
From left to right, the ploidy of the resultant zygotes: 2N, 2N, 2N+1, 2N-1; 2N+1, 2N+1, 2N-1, 2N-1
Down Syndrome Karyotype
Down’s syndrome karytope showing the traditional trisomy 21

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