| MadSci Network: General Biology |
I'm asking because I'm wondering if a different one of my fathers sperm would have made me or would it have been someone else? I know they all share the same information. I know I come from the matching of that one sperm and that one egg but what if it was a different one of my fathers sperm with the same egg? Could it still make the same person? I know with a different egg it would be a different person but I am really interested because if each sperm makes a different person then each movement my father made in his lifetime before having sex the time to make me would have to be the same for each sperm to be in that exact postion to have the exact outcome.....anyway...i hope i can get an answer...thanks so much!
Response:
Re: How do my sperm differ from each other? Each sperm is different. If a different sperm had fertilized your mom's egg, that person would be as similar to you are as your brother or sister is. Each sperm has 23 chromosomes (they are haploid). Other than in the sperm, each of your dads cells has 46 chromosomes. When sperm are made, one of each pair of chromosomes is RANDOMLY selected. It is the same probability as flipping a coin for each pair. Having two sperm with the same set of chromosomes is as likely as flipping a coin heads 23 times. This effect is called "random assortment". One obvious effect of random assortment is the 50/50 proportion of males and females. If the sperm has a Y chromosome, the fertilized egg will be a boy (Y from dad, X from mom) If the sperm has an X chromosome, the baby will be a girl(X from dad, X from mom). There is another effect - during meiosis, the chromosomes pair up and swap bits of DNA back and forth. This is called recombination. Recombination and independent assortment make for a lot of variety and explain why siblings - even fraternal twins - are often not very similar to each other. Erin Cram, Moderator MadSci Network _______________________________________________________________ I'm asking because I'm wondering if a different one of my fathers sperm would have made me or would it have been someone else? I know they all share the same information. I know I come from the matching of that one sperm and that one egg but what if it was a different one of my fathers sperm with the same egg? Could it still make the same person? I know with a different egg it would be a different person but I am really interested because if each sperm makes a different person then each movement my father made in his lifetime before having sex the time to make me would have to be the same for each sperm to be in that exact postion to have the exact outcome.....anyway...i hope i can get an answer...thanks so much! ________________________________________________________________ MadSci Network http://www.madsci.org/ webadmin@madsci.org
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