• Question: What would happen if there was a human with 48 chromazones if there no answer what is the most accurate theory

    Asked by 13marbles to Adam, Chris, Eleanor, Jessamyn, Sinead on 11 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Christian Wirtz

      Christian Wirtz answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      This is not really my field but I can try to take a guess. Sinead may know more.

      As far as I am aware, we use genetic engineering and intentionally implant the wrong number of chromosomes in things for various effects. For example, seedless grapes have a wrong number of chromosomes, making them infertile (and hence taking away the seeds).
      So you could expect a human with 48 chromosomes to be infertile even if everything else seems alright. Anything else I cannot predict.

    • Photo: Adam Murphy

      Adam Murphy answered on 11 Nov 2013:

      There’s a weird thing about chromosomes is something called the C-Value Enigma. It says that the number of chromosomes has nothing to do with how complex a living thing is.

      We have 46, but gorillas and hares have 48. So does the tobacco plant. Dogs have 78 and goldfish have more than 100.

      There’s a fern called the adder’s tongue fern that has 1200!

      It seems to be related to how long ago the species came into existence.

      If it was a mutation on a normal human, I’d agree with Chris, it wouldn’t be fertile. If we just had extra and that was normal, there might not be a difference at all!

    • Photo: Sinead Cullen

      Sinead Cullen answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Well as humans we are programmed to have only 46 chromosomes. Is some cases there are problems with cell division during development which can lead some people having 47 chromomes instead of 46. Down’s syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21, giving you 47 instead of 46 chromosomes. Down syndrome is the most common chromosome abnormality in humans in the world.
      So I think if there were a 48 chromosomes it could possibly need to a genetic disorder also.

      I hope this helps 🙂

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