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  • Current: Dec 21, 2023

Karyotype

A karyotype is the complete set of chromosomes of an organism.

A karyotype is often represented as an image containing a complete set of metaphase chromosomes, and the image is also called the karyotype.

Human male karyotype
Public domain image of a male human karyotype.

Definitions in the literature

  • The complete set of chromosomes possessed by an organism; usually presented as a picture of a complete set of its metaphase chromosomes [1].
  • a preparation showing the number, sizes, and shapes of all of the chromosomes within a cell [2].
  • Image of an individual’s complement of chromosomes arranged by size, length. shape, and centromere location [3].