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Re: Australopithecine chromosomes
Vincent Paquin (vpaquin@cam.org)
Mon, 13 Jan 1997 21:45:46 -0500
In article <32CF456C.48C1@po.cwru.edu>, "Todd A. Farmerie"
<taf2@po.cwru.edu> wrote:
> Timo Niroma wrote:
>
> > One item that has caught little interest is when and why and with
> > consequences two chromosomes have merged in Homo, so that we have 23
> > pairs, when the chimpanzees have preserved the 24 chromosome pairs.
>
> Have two chromosomes merged in Homo, or has one split in Pan? What do
> Gorilla have?
According to Joy D. A. Delhanty ("Primate genetics and evolution", in The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, 1992, p.280):
"Fusion of two pairs of chromosomes accounts for the reduction of the
chromosome number from 48 in the great apes to 46 in modern humans and most
other chromosomal differences in the four species [humans, chimpanzees,
gorillas and orangs] are inversions and variations in the amount and siting
of repetitive DNA, which has no function in the coding of proteins."
--
Vincent Paquin, a.k.a. "The Vinman"
Anthropology student, Universite de Montreal, Canada
E-mail: vpaquin@cam.org Fax: (514) 491-7133
Full-time fanatic of the following: Baseball, X-Files, Simpsons,
Pearl Jam, U2, Macintosh, Hockey, Pink Floyd, Star Wars....
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