Letter A

Autosome

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A chromosome that is not a sex chromosome.

In other words, any one of the chromosomes save the sex chromosomes.

People normally have 22 pairs of autosomes in every cell (together with two sex chromosomes -- an X and a Y in the male and two Xs in the female -- for a total of 46 chromosomes).

The term 'autosome' was coined by Montgomery in 1906.

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