Definition of Reproductive cells
Reproductive cells: The eggs and sperm are the
reproductive cells. Each mature reproductive cell is haploid in that
it has a single set of 23 chromosomes containing half the usual
amount of DNA.
Except for the eggs and sperm, each cell in the human body --
there are 100 trillion cells in each of us -- contains the entire
human genome, all the genetic information necessary to build a human
being, and this information is encoded within the cell nucleus in 6
billion base pairs, subunits of DNA, packaged in 23 pairs of
chromosomes, one chromosome in each pair coming from each parent.
The reproductive cells -- the eggs and sperm -- are thus notable
exceptions to the usual rules concerning chromosomes, genes, and DNA.
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