Y chromosome: wimpy or lean and mean?

Fear not for genetic machismo: Reports of the human Y-chromosome’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Over time, it may have evolved to be tiny, but it is not failing, according to UC Berkeley geneticist Melissa Wilson Sayres. Rather, it has been whittled down to a lean, mean, male-making machine.

The case for the death of the Y has always been plain: its evident diminishment.

The human Y, however, may be done shrinking, says Wilson Sayres, who is the Miller Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Integrative Biology and the lead author of a new analysis that suggests the Y isn’t shrinking, it’s honed. It has one job and one job only.

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Read the full, original story: Sex and the Single Y: Our Unpaired Genes Aren’t Disappearing, They’re Just Pared Down