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| 6/19/2003 |
Y chromosome is able to fix itself
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10:51:27 AM
St Louis, June 19 - Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found the Y chromosome is able to fix itself because it carries multiple copies of its genes.
Unlike other chromosomes, which come in pairs, the Y chromosome, which makes a fertilized egg male, is singular and carries 78 genes -- nearly twice the number originally thought.
"This study shows that the Y chromosome has become very efficient at preserving its important genes," said Richard Wilson, director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine.
"It begins to give us a basic understanding of the genetics of reproductive strategies and their evolution."
Scientists had long wondered how the Y chromosome protects essential genes from damage.
Earlier research by Wilson and David Page of the White Head Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., showed genes on the Y chromosome are devoted almost entirely to maleness and male fertility and that most of them are active only in the testes.
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