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How is the equal genetic contribution of male and female parents ensured in the progeny?
Answer:
Human beings give birth to male and female children due to genetic reasons.
- Human beings have 23 pairs of chromosomes.
- This makes a total of 46 chromosomes.
- Out of the 23 pairs, 22 pairs (44 chromosomes) have a copy from the mother and father each .
- But 1 pair called the sex chromosome , is not always paired perfectly.
- Women have a perfect pair - both are X - XX (Egg)
- Men have one normal sized X chromosome and another short chromosome called Y chromosome - XY (Sperm)
- So,
- This means that there is a 50% chance that the child is a male or female.
- Though the sex is determined by which gene is inherited from the father , the process in completely by chance and the probability of the child being male or female is equal.
