The pattern by which information is passed from parents to child, creating a unique individual. The basic units of inheritance are genes, molecules of DNA in a cell’s nucleus that are organized in linear sequence on 23 threadlike pairs of structures called chromosomes. One pair, the sex chromosomes, determines the new being’s gender. A normal female has two X chromosomes; a normal male has an X and a Y. The other 22 chromosome pairs, called autosomes, carry the majority of the being’s genetic inheritance.