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- For other meanings see Zygote (disambiguation).
A zygote (from Greek ζυγωτός zugōtos "joined" or "yoked", from ζυγοῦν zugoun "to join" or "to yoke")1 is a cell that is the result of fertilization. That is, two haploid cells—usually an ovum from a female and a sperm cell from a male—merge into a single diploid cell called the zygote (or zygocyte).
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Twins
Twins and multiple births can be monozygotic (identical) or dizygotic (fraternal), meaning they arise from one or several (strictly, two) fertilization events. Polyspermic zygotes in mice have been manipulated so as to remove one of the two male pronuclei and made to survive birth.2
In other species
A biparental zygote is a Chlamydomonas (a kind of algae) zygote that contains chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) from both parents.
References
- ^ "English etymology of zygote". myetymology.com.
- ^ "Birth of normal mice after removal of the supernumerary male pronucleus from polyspermic zygotes". National Center for Biotechnology Information.
See also
| Preceded by Oocyte Sperm |
Stages of human development Zygote |
Succeeded by Embryo |
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 5 December 2008, at 06:06.
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