question about inheritance of chromosomes

[earthlyillusion]

Hi,
My biology class and I are stumped on a question regarding the inheritance of chromosomes and our teacher claims it's 'ridiculously easy' but yet, we keep doubting and second guessing ourselves.

The question asks about the inheritance of chromosomes through grandparents. Is it possible that a child can inherit at least one chromosome from their father's father? We originally believed yes, as the father obviously received chromosomes from his father but now we doubt it, remarking that obviously genes can be and are inherited but can a whole chromosome pass from a grandfather to his grandson?

My teacher's remark about it being an easy question leads me to believe we are meant to ignore the concept of crossing over during meiosis and simply respond with a yes and the reasoning I mentioned above.

I was just curious to know what you all thought.

Thanks in advance.

[wbla3335]

Is there any chromosome that does not pair with a homologue where recombination could occur? Remember, the question is asking about the child's father's father.

[HenryHR]

Yeah,until there is a chromosome that does not crossover with its homolog chromosome.But I am afraid there is not a chromosome like this ~

[jonmoulton]

Ah, but can there be a pair of chromosomes that is not a truly homologous pair? Consider overall shapes...

[Darby]

You need a better idea of what distinguishes genes and chromosomes. If you're straight on that, it is very easy.

[jonmoulton]

Assuming normal rates of crossover, we can say unambiguously whether or not a child will have inherited an intact chromosome (without recombination) from the child's paternal grandfather. All we need to know in order to answer the question is the sex of the child.

[TMK]

If the child is a boy - then he has inherited his father's father (paternal grandfathers) Y chromosome