Somatic cells or body cells have a dipliod or full set of chromosomes.

Gametes or sex cells, also called germ cells, have a hapliod number of chromosomes or half the number. Sperm and eggs are the gametes of humans.

Karyotype Analysis
Karyotype describe the number of chromosomes, and what they look like under a light microscope. Chromosomes are arranged based on their size,position of their centromere and their staining pattern to create a karyotype.

HISTONES
Histones are proteins found in eukaryotic cell nuclei, which package the DNA into structural units called nucleosomes. They are the chief protein components of chromatin, the active component of chromosomes. Histones act as spools around which DNA winds, and play a role in gene regulation. Without histones, the unwound DNA in chromosomes would be very long. Small basic proteins 5 types H1,H2A,H2B,H3,H4. 8 histones (2 each)molecules form an octomer ellipsoidal structure around which DNA coils H1 is associated with linker region Helps in folding to chromatin fibre & further to form chromatin

Genes inside the cell follow several layers of organisation to enable the long DNA to be compacted into the chromosome fibers. In the first level of packing, DNA is wrapped around 4 pairs of proteins called Histones in a beads-on-string fashion.

These nucleosomes then coil around each other in the form of a helix, with around 6 nucleosomes forming one turn of a helix.

These helices form the long chromatin fibers which, with series of turns and loops, forms the third level of spatial DNA organisation. Finally, these chromatin fibers are compactly packed inside the chromosome. In the Chromosome, the chromatin fibers are wrapped around a protein scaffold.

GENE: nature & concept

Richard Dawkins in his book " The Selfish Gene" (1989) stated : they're in you, and in me;they created us,body and minds and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence,......they go by the name of genes,and we as their survival machines.

 Gene is the basic unit of genetic information.

It is a specific stretch of nucleotide bases on a strand of DNA that serves as a unit of information.
Gene can reside on either strand. It can range from few hundred to thousand nucleotide bases. The no. & sequences of bases determine the amino acid sequence of the protein it will encode.

 Gene can code for RNA or Protein Protein encoding genes are of two types: Structural genes & Regulatory genes. Str. Gene codes for a protein which has structural or enzymatic activity Reg.gene controls the activity of a str.gene.

A gene is a segment of nucleic acid that contains the information necessary to produce a functional product, usually a protein. Genes consist of a long strand of DNA ( RNA in some viruses) that contains a promoter, which controls the activity of a gene, and a coding sequence, which determines what the gene produces. Genes are poly-nucleotides. Each nucleotide is made up of a base group, a sugar and one ore phosphate groups

The sugar group forms the backbone of DNA. The phosphate groups are responsible for linking one nucleotide to another. The nitrogenous bases of nucleotides face each other and form Hydrogen bonds with their complimentary bases. A is complimentary to T while G is complimentary to C.
A forms 2 bonds with T while G forms 3 bonds with C. Hence a GC bond is thermally more stable than an A=T bond.

The genes are made up of a coding alphabet of 4 nucleotides made up of 4 bases:- Adenine(A), Thymine (T), Guanine (G) and Cytosine (C) The bases Adenine(A) and Guanine(G) are Purines; while Thymine (T) and Cytosine (C) are Pyrimidines.