What might cause a person to inherit the wrong number of chromosomes?

Answer 1

Occassionally, during meiosis, non-disjunction can occur with one or more chromosomes, where both copies of the chromosome end up segregating into one cell, leaving the other cell with no copies of that chromosome. It is believed that non-disjunction is the result of a centromere defect, but it is also possible that it is just an incompletion of the microtubule formation that attaches to the appropriate centromeres.

Either way, it is a rare occurence, and even rare that it is a survivable condition, so most of the instances of this result in a spontaneous abortion before the zygote can even being dividing.

Answer 2

There are many causes for this condition. For example, an older mother is more likely to have a child with an extra chromosome. If this extra chromosome is only present in a fraction of the cells, that person is mosaic because he or she has 2 populations of cells: one with 46 chromosomes (normal) and one with 47 (abnormal). Additional causes of mosaicism include the development of a new mutation during the early embryonic growth of a fetus and a situation where two embryos grow to be one fetus or exchange cells.

One type of mosaicism which occurs when a fetus develops a new mutation during its growth is gonadal mosaicism. In this case, the new mutation occurs in the cells that give rise to germ (egg or sperm) cells of the parent. The parent may show no signs of disease, but may have children with some risk of inheriting the mutation because there are 2 populations (mutant and normal) of germ cells in their gonads (ovaries or testes).

Answer 3

A very interesting question..Have a few theories..but would love to know..Brainiacs out there? 32 is so un together n ow!

Answer 4

Someone banged a chimp

Answer 5

radiation