Video Transcript
In the body cells of mammals,
chromosomes are arranged into pairs. How many pairs of chromosomes are
contained in a human body cell?
Did you know that if all the DNA in
one human cell was stretched out, it would reach up to two meters in length? These two meters must somehow fit
into the nucleus, a space that is about 10 micrometers in diameter! This is achieved by tightly packing
the DNA into structures called chromosomes.
A chromosome is a highly condensed,
long strand of DNA. To achieve the tightly packed
structure required to fit inside the nucleus, the DNA is wrapped around specialized
proteins called histones. In most animals, including humans,
chromosomes are linear and arranged in pairs. They are located in the nucleus of
the cell. In a human body cell, there are 46
individual chromosomes, which are arranged into 23 pairs.
The correct answer is therefore 23
pairs of chromosomes.
