Now we are going to discuss major differences between autosomes and allosomes but before we understand various differences among them we have to understand what is actually autosomes and what is allosomes.
Nucleus of body cells contain chromosomes which have genetic material which controls all types of metabolism and they are different types depending upon what function they perform. Some chromosomes are known as autosomes and some chromosomes are known as autosomes depending upon what types of gene they have and what their functions are.
What is Autosome:
In human cells nuclei have 22 pairs of chromosomes which do not have any role in gender determination and they are known as somatic chromosomes or autosomes because they mainly have those genes which are responsible for expression of different other somatic characters.
There are chromosomes other than X chromosome and Y chromosome in our cells which are 22 pairs of homologous chromosomes and each chromosome has different combinations of genes.
What is allosome:
In our body cells two pairs of chromosomes are present which are responsible for expression of some characters which are gender specific and different in male and female.
The two pairs of homologous allosome in human are either of same type or different, in case of human male both the allosome are ‘Y’ while in case of human female two allosome are different one is ‘X’ and another one is ‘Y’ and ‘X’ is responsible for most of the female characters and it works as determination of gender in human.
But this determination is not the same in all organisms, in some organisms it is like that of humans but in some cases it is opposite to that of human beings.
Major Differences Between Autosomes and Allosomes:
| Autosomes | Allosomes |
| Autosomes are responsible for different somatic characters because the genes present in autosomes are responsible for expression of different somatic characters. | Allosomes are responsible for determining gender in organisms because the allosomes have the gene which are responsible for those expressions which are related to the characters which differentiate a male from a female. |
| Autosomes are named by leveling them with Arabic numerals, for example in case of human beings there are 22 pairs of homologous autosomes in each cell so they are named as chromosome number 1, chromosome number 2, chromosome number 22. | Allosomes are named as english alphabet as in case of human beings two types of allosome present one is ‘X’ and another one is ‘Y’ so in case of human female they are represented as ‘XX’ where in case of male they represented as ‘XY’ but in others organisms they are represented by different alphabet like ZW, XO, YO. |
| Autosomes are the same in both male and females because they are not responsible for gender determination so they are almost similar in both male and female. | In case of allosomes different allosomes are not same in form, behaviour and size, for example in case of human beings two allosome X and Y are different in size, mode of expression and form. |
| In a genome the number of autosomes is much higher as compared to the number of allosomes because autosomes are responsible for most of the character in humans. | In a genome the number of allosomes is very less as compared to the number of autosomes, for example in human beings the number of allosomes is only 2 pairs which is a very few number as compared to the 22 pairs of autosomes. |
| Autosomes are present in homologous pairs in the nucleus and two chromosomes of a homologous pair are similar in form. | Allosomes are not present in homologous pairs because in case of human female two allosome are ‘Y’ and ‘X’ which are different in form, size and mode of expression. |
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