Lowly Y chromosome may deserve some respect after all

[Geee]

Christian Science Monitor:

The chromosome that separates males from females appears to play a much larger role in humans than just determining who gets what set of reproductive plumbing. It also carries a hardy set of genes that regulate functions in every cell throughout a male's body, as well as the behavior of genes throughout his genome.

 

That is the implication of two new studies that look at the evolution of the Y chromosome, which has retained a small set of genes that have survived millions of years of evolution.

 

Indeed, "it looks like the Y has the potential to do a lot of regulation, from the earliest stages of development right after fertilization all the way to adulthood in every tissue," says Winston Bellott, a researcher at the Whitehead Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., and the lead author of one of two papers on the topic set for publication Thursday in the journal Nature.

[Valin]