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Chromosome 21 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. Chromosome 21 is both the smallest human autosome and chromosome,[4] with 46.7 million base pairs (the building material of DNA) representing about 1.5 percent of the total DNA in cells. Most people have two copies of chromosome 21, while those with three copies of chromosome 21 (trisomy 21) have Down syndrome.

Quick Facts Features, Length (bp) ...
Chromosome 21
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Human chromosome 21 pair after G-banding.
One is from the mother, one is from the father.
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Chromosome 21 pair
in human male karyogram.
Features
Length (bp)45,090,682 bp
(CHM13)
No. of genes215 (CCDS)[1]
TypeAutosome
Centromere positionAcrocentric[2]
(12.0 Mbp[3])
Complete gene lists
CCDSGene list
HGNCGene list
UniProtGene list
NCBIGene list
External map viewers
EnsemblChromosome 21
EntrezChromosome 21
NCBIChromosome 21
UCSCChromosome 21
Full DNA sequences
RefSeqNC_000021 (FASTA)
GenBankCM000683 (FASTA)
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Researchers working on the Human Genome Project announced in May 2000 that they had determined the sequence of base pairs that make up this chromosome.[5] Chromosome 21 was the second human chromosome to be fully sequenced, after chromosome 22.

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Genes

Number of genes

The following are some of the gene count estimates of human chromosome 21. Because researchers use different approaches to genome annotation, their predictions of the number of genes on each chromosome varies (for technical details, see gene prediction). Among various projects, the collaborative consensus coding sequence project (CCDS) takes an extremely conservative strategy. Thus CCDS's gene number prediction represents a lower bound on the total number of human protein-coding genes.[6]

More information Estimated by, Protein-coding genes ...
Estimated by Protein-coding genes Non-coding RNA genes Pseudogenes Source Release date
CCDS212 [1] 2022-10-26
HGNC215193194 [7] 2024-04-10
Ensembl221447185 [8] 2023-07-17
UniProt246 [9] 2024-10-02
NCBI256356207 [10][11][12] 2017-05-19
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Gene list

The following is a partial list of genes on human chromosome 21. For complete list, see the link in the infobox at the top of the article.

In addition, the chromosome has many genes for keratin-associated protein, with symbols: KRTAP6-1, KRTAP6-2, KRTAP6-3, KRTAP7-1, KRTAP8-1, KRTAP10-1, KRTAP10-2, KRTAP10-3, KRTAP10-4, KRTAP10-5, KRTAP10-6, KRTAP10-7, KRTAP10-8, KRTAP10-9, KRTAP10-10, KRTAP10-11, KRTAP10-12, KRTAP11-1, KRTAP12-1, KRTAP12-1, KRTAP12-2, KRTAP12-3, KRTAP12-4, KRTAP13-1, KRTAP13-2, KRTAP13-3, KRTAP13-4, KRTAP15-1, KRTAP19-1, KRTAP19-2, KRTAP19-3, KRTAP19-4, KRTAP19-5, KRTAP19-6, KRTAP19-7, KRTAP19-8, KRTAP20-1, KRTAP20-2, KRTAP20-3, KRTAP20-4, KRTAP21-1, KRTAP21-2, KRTAP21-3, KRTAP22-1, KRTAP22-2, KRTAP23-1, KRTAP24-1, KRTAP25-1, KRTAP26-1, KRTAP27-1.

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Diseases and disorders

The following diseases and disorders are some of those related to genes on chromosome 21:

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Chromosomal conditions

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A karyotype of somebody affected with Down syndrome, depicting the presence of a full additional copy of chromosome 21. The presence of this extra copy is also referred to as Trisomy 21.

The following conditions are caused by changes in the structure or number of copies of chromosome 21:

  • Cancers: Rearrangements (translocations) of genetic material between chromosome 21 and other chromosomes have been associated with several types of cancer. For example, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (a type of blood cancer most often diagnosed in childhood) has been associated with a translocation between chromosomes 12 and 21. Another form of leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, has been associated with a translocation between chromosomes 8 and 21.
  • In a small percentage of cases, Down syndrome is caused by a rearrangement of chromosomal material between chromosome 21 and another chromosome. As a result, a person has the usual two copies of chromosome 21, plus extra material from chromosome 21 attached to another chromosome. These cases are called translocation Down syndrome. Researchers believe that extra copies of genes on chromosome 21 disrupt the course of normal development, causing the characteristic features of Down syndrome and the increased risk of medical problems associated with this disorder.
  • Other changes in the number or structure of chromosome 21 can have a variety of effects, including intellectual disability, delayed development, and characteristic facial features. In some cases, the signs and symptoms are similar to those of Down syndrome. Changes to chromosome 21 include a missing segment of the chromosome in each cell (partial monosomy 21) and a circular structure called ring chromosome 21. A ring chromosome occurs when both ends of a broken chromosome are reunited.
  • Duplication in amyloid precursor protein (APP) locus (duplicated segment varies in length but includes APP) on Chromosome 21 was found to cause early onset familial Alzheimer's disease in a French family set (Rovelet-Lecrux et al. 2005) and a Dutch family set.[13] Compared to Alzheimer's caused by missense mutations in APP, the frequency of the Alzheimer's caused by APP duplications is significant. All patients that have an extra copy of APP gene due to the locus duplication show Alzheimer's with severe cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
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Cytogenetic band

G-banding ideograms of human chromosome 21
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G-banding ideogram of human chromosome 21 in resolution 850 bphs. Band length in this diagram is proportional to base-pair length. This type of ideogram is generally used in genome browsers (e.g. Ensembl, UCSC Genome Browser).
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G-banding patterns of human chromosome 21 in three different resolutions (400,[15] 550[16] and 850[3]). Band length in this diagram is based on the ideograms from ISCN (2013).[17] This type of ideogram represents actual relative band length observed under a microscope at the different moments during the mitotic process.[18]
More information Chr., Arm ...
G-bands of human chromosome 21 in resolution 850 bphs[3]
Chr. Arm[19] Band[20] ISCN
start[21]
ISCN
stop[21]
Basepair
start
Basepair
stop
Stain[22] Density
21p 13031113,100,000 gvar
21p 123116833,100,0017,000,000 stalk
21p 11.268310567,000,00110,900,000 gvar
21p 11.11056127410,900,00112,000,000 acen
21q 11.11274136712,000,00113,000,000 acen
21q 11.21367158413,000,00115,000,000 gneg
21q 21.11584201915,000,00122,600,000 gpos100
21q 21.22019214422,600,00125,500,000 gneg
21q 21.32144233025,500,00130,200,000 gpos75
21q 22.112330248530,200,00134,400,000 gneg
21q 22.122485261034,400,00136,400,000 gpos50
21q 22.132610270336,400,00138,300,000 gneg
21q 22.22703285838,300,00141,200,000 gpos50
21q 22.32858320041,200,00146,709,983 gneg
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References

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