Diploid Number

Chromosomes are organized structures of DNA that are present in cells. The number of chromosomes in diploid cell varies in different organisms. The diploid chromosomes of a species contains two sets of chromosomes and are indicated as 2n, where n = number of chromosomes. One set is contributed from the mother and one set from the father. In haploid cells, like gametes, there is just one set of chromosomes indicated as 'n'. In this article, we shall learn more about the diploid number.

What is Diploid Chromosome Number?

In humans, most of the cells in the body are somatic cells or non-sex cells. These cells contain diploid number of chromosomes. This means that the chromosomes contain pairs called homologous. This means each and every somatic cell of the body has 46 chromosomes. There are 23 chromosomes from the mother's egg and 23 chromosomes from father's sperm, thus making the diploid chromosome number as 46. These diploid chromosome number makes up the genetic material of each individual human.

The diploid number in cells is maintained by a process called mitosis. This is a nuclear division process that gives rise to identical sets of chromosomes. These chromosomal sets are distributed to daughter cells during cell division. In meiosis, the diploid germ cells give rise to haploid cells. These haploid cells, that is, egg and sperm contain half the number of chromosomes as that in the diploid cells. After fertilization of the egg and sperm, the diploid number of chromosomes is restored after formation of zygote. However, even within the body there are certain exceptions like liver cells. These regeneration liver cells may contain twice the number of diploid amount of DNA. Cancer cells in the body show aneuploidy, that is uneven number of chromosomes in the haploid number. You can read more on importance of meiosis.

Diploid Chromosome Number in Different Organisms

The following table contains the diploid number of organisms that are studied the most.

Diploid Organism	Diploid Number
Crayfish	200
Ant	2
Chicken	78
Corn or maize	20
Drosophila (fruit fly)	8
House mouse	40
Humans	46
Microscopic roundworm	12
Budding yeast	32
Mouse-ear cress plant	10
Barking Deer	6
Parasitic roundworm	2
South African clawed frog	36
Domestic dog	78
Chinese muntjac (deer)	23

You can read more on stages of meiosis.

Thus, in conclusion, diploid chromosomes have two homologous copies of each chromosome. These two copies are derived from one set of chromosomes from each parent. You can refer to the article on diploid and haploid for more information. I hope this article on diploid number has helped understanding genes and chromosomes.