A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein that is found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.
Chromosomes vary widely between different organisms. The DNA molecule may be circular or linear, and can be composed of 10,000 to 1,000,000,000[1] nucleotides in a long chain. Typically, eukaryotic cells (cells with nuclei) have large linear chromosomes and prokaryoticcells (cells without defined nuclei) have smaller circular chromosomes, although there are many exceptions to this rule. Also, cells may contain more than one type of chromosome; for example, mitochondria in most eukaryotes and chloroplasts in plants have their own small chromosomes.
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