Ward and colleagues had previously shown that two
Y chromosome genes--Sry and Eif2s3y--are crucial for male mouse development.
These genes have probably migrated to the
Y chromosome from various autosomes in the last few hundred million years.
A uniquely female type of DNA, called mitochondrial DNA, is passed on just as reliably through females as the
Y chromosome is through males.
Y chromosome polymorphisms and the origins of Native Americans" American Journal of Human Genetics 59 (1996) (Supplement): A 182.
Y DEBATE Other genetics are divided on how to react to the idea that Genghis Khan himself was central to the spread of a particular
Y chromosome.
Even if losing the
Y chromosome doesn't cause cancer, the event might signal that a man is at risk, said Forsberg.
This paper simply destroys the idea of the disappearing
Y chromosome.
The researchers obtained
Y chromosomes by extracting them from cell samples scraped from the men's mouths.
The Science paper Underhill co-authored described the
Y chromosomes of more than 1,000 men in 25 different Middle Eastern and European geographic regions.
In a study slated to appear in Molecular and Biological Evolution, Hammer and his colleagues trace the origin of the two Native American
Y chromosome lineages to a mountainous region of southern Siberia.
28 Nature, two Australian scientists summarized recent research showing that the human
Y chromosome gradually accumulates mutations that deactivate its few genes.
The
Y chromosome segments in the new analysis exhibit much less variability than DNA regions that have been studied in other chromosomes.
