sex chromosomes

sex chromosomes

The two chromosomes in each body cell of a living thing that determine what sex it is.

Note: As with other pairs of chromosomes, one of the sex chromosomes is contributed by each parent; they are of two types, X and Y. The mother supplies only an X-chromosome, but the father can transmit both the X- and the Y-chromosome. At fertilization, if the father's sperm is also carrying an X-chromosome, the child will be female. If the father's sperm is carrying a Y-chromosome, the child will be male.

Main Entry: sex chromosome
Function: noun
: a chromosome (as the X chromosome or the Y chromosome in humans) of a sexually reproducing eukaryotic organism that is directlyconcerned with the inheritance of sex, that contains the genes governing the inheritance of various sex-linked and sex-limited characters, and that is represented differently in the two sexes either bybeing present in one and not the other or by being present a different number of times in one sex compared to the other called also heterochromosome

sex chromosome n.
Either of a pair of chromosomes, usually designated X or Y, that combine to determine the sex and sex-linked characteristics of an individual, with XX resulting in a female and XY in a male.