News Humans

Women’s chromosome division different from men’s

Error more likely as human eggs prepare genetic material

By Tina Hesman Saey

- More than 2 years ago

PHILADELPHIA — Women and men sometimes do things differently, right down to divvying up their genetic legacies.

A HUMAN OOCYTE A human oocyte in meiosis. Protein complexes that bind homologous (partner) chromosomes are shown in red, proteins that mark sites of cross-overs are in yellow, and proteins associated with centromeric regions are in blue.