Every plant and animal has fixed number of chromosomes. For example, the human beings have 46 chromosomes in every cell. The chromosomes of each species occur in pairs, out of which one comes from father and the other comes from mother. In this way, we can say that every cell of human body contains 23 pairs of homologous chromosomes.
Before discussing further it is necessary for us to know the meaning of homologous chromosomes. Homologous chromosomes are two different chromosomes which have the same size, shape, structure and length, even the location of a particular gene on both the homologous chromosomes is same. Out of the two homologous chromosomes one comes from the father and the other comes from mother
As human beings have 46 chromosomes in the same way every plant and animal also has fixed number of chromosomes. The chromosome number of some of the important animals and plants is shown in the table.
| S No. | Name of species | No. of chromosomes present |
| 1. | Man | 46 |
| 2. | Horse | 66 |
| 3. | Cat | 38 |
| 4. | Dog | 78 |
| 5. | Pea | 14 |
| 6. | potato | 48 |
| 7. | Rice | 24 |
Test Your Understanding and Answer These Questions:
- What are homologous chromosomes?
- What is the number of chromosomes present in human beings?