Body & Mind

The Y chromosome is disappearing: what happens to men?

By Wieke Veenboer | #!31Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200+02:002131#31Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200+02:00-8Europe\/Amsterdam3131Europe\/Amsterdam202331 08am31am-31Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200+02:008Europe\/Amsterdam3131Europe\/Amsterdam2023312023Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200008007amSaturday=9#!31Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200+02:00Europe\/Amsterdam7#07-08-2023#!31Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200+02:002131#\/31Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200+02:00-8Europe\/Amsterdam3131Europe\/Amsterdam202331#!31Sat, 08 Jul 2023 08:00:21 +0200+02:00Europe\/Amsterdam7#

woman looks surprised at her phone in the club

Did you pay attention in biology class? Then you probably know what the X and Y chromosomes are for. If you’ve forgotten, here’s a quick explanation: biologically, women have two X chromosomes and men have one X and one Y chromosome. That Y chromosome is necessary to develop the fertilized egg into a male embryo. And in the future, that’s going to be difficult: the Y chromosome is disappearing.

Uh, excuse me? Yep, that’s really true. The reason for this is that the X chromosome contains about 900 genes, while the Y chromosome has ‘only’ 55 (give or take), along with some ‘non-coding DNA’, which is DNA that seems to have no function. However, this wasn’t always the case; the Y chromosome used to have 900 genes as well, but has lost them over time. And this indicates that this will only continue to increase until there’s nothing left. Panic. What will we do without men?! I know I mostly complain about them and they bring me more stress and sadness than happiness, but still, it would be super inconvenient if there’s really no one left.

There are also positive points in this story. The first plus is that we will never experience this in our lifetime. If the Y chromosome continues to decrease at this rate, it will take another eleven million years before it has completely disappeared. Now, I don’t know what technology will do in the coming years, but I consider the chance of an invention that allows us to keep going for millions of years to be quite small. But hey, I’m not a scientist.

Scientists are worried about this, and that’s why solutions have already been sought. Plus point number two: that solution seems to exist. Recent research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has shown.

They conducted studies on two species of rats and found that in their species, a new gene has developed that replaces the Y chromosome. This is a gene that will determine whether an embryo will be biologically male or female. The Y chromosome has already disappeared in these species, and they have clearly found a solution for it. Long live evolution.

I should mention that these rats only live on islands belonging to Japan and are threatened with extinction, so it’s not going very successfully yet. But hey, so far they are managing just fine without that Y chromosome. Maybe we can breathe easy in eleven million years.

Source: Sciencealert.com