Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun genetics A
mammalian sex chromosome . Cells of females have a pair of X chromosomes while cells of males have an X and a Y.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Named by Hermann Henking in 1890 from x (signifying the unknown) due to some baffling properties he had observed. The brief resemblance in the appearance of the X chromosome to the letter "X" during cell division is entirely coincidental.
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