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Variation of the Somatic Chromosome Number in Man

Nature volume 166, pages 995–996 (1950)Cite this article

Abstract

THE necessity of stressing the importance of chromosomes in the organization of plants and animals, and their decisive role in inheritance, caused O. Hertwig in 1918 to formulate the ‘law of constancy of chromosome number’, which implies that all cells of a given organism contain the same somatic number of chromosomes. A great number of observations have, however, shown that this concept is in need of revision. Especially in insects1,2 and in plants3, it has been established that certain cells and even whole tissues may represent different degrees of polyploidy.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Women's Clinic, University of Helsinki,

    SAKARI TIMONEN & EEVA THERMAN

Authors
  1. SAKARI TIMONEN
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  2. EEVA THERMAN
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TIMONEN, S., THERMAN, E. Variation of the Somatic Chromosome Number in Man. Nature 166, 995–996 (1950). https://doi.org/10.1038/166995a0

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