Research suggests that the Y chromosome - which plays a critical role in the sexual reproduction of men - may disappear in less than five million years, leading to a future without males, who carries two different kinds of sex chromosomes (XY).
According to a publication by scientists from the University of Kent last week, which is available to the Ghana News Agency, although the Y chromosome contains the “master switch” gene SRY, which can determine the gender of the embryo, it carries very few other genes and is the only chromosome not necessary for life.
Women, who typically have two of the same kind of sex chromosome (XX), manage just fine without the chromosome.
It said when the very first mammal emerged, the Y chromosome had the same size and the gene combination as the X chromosome. However, since the Y chromosome has a fundamental flaw, it can only present as a single copy passed from fathers to their sons.
Therefore, genes carried by the Y chromosome cannot undergo genetic recombination, the “shuffling” of genes that occurs in each generation which helps to eliminate damaging gene mutations, said scientists.
It said if the Y chromosome keeps degenerating at the same rate, it will disappear in 4.6 million years.
Jenny Graves from La Trobe University in Australia pointed out in a 2016 paper that Japanese spiny rats and mole voles have lost their Y chromosomes entirely, claiming that the loss of genes would lead to fertility issues.
Luckily, assisted reproduction techniques can make up for the lack of Y chromosome, meaning that genetic engineering may soon be able to replace the gene function of the Y chromosome, allowing same-sex female couples or infertile men to conceive.
“Although this is an interesting and hotly debated area of genetic research, there is little need to worry. We don’t even know whether the Y chromosome will disappear at all,” scientists said at the end of the article.
Source: GNA
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...and now let's for argument sake say Y chromosomes have existed for 200,000 or 315,000 years (according to your Wikipedia sources). Does it sound scientific to you that, it is "deteriorating rapidly"? Given 5 million years left, when it has only done less than 400,000? What half-life calculation is that one?
@Gee4real I wish you had indicated your background so I know whether or not i'm addressing another scientist. I'll keep a clean conversation and I invite you to do the same. Yes I'm a scientist. No I didn't get it from Agbogbloshie. I know that market and I know they don't sell HCL there. Oh yes, they sell NaCl but they don't teach it. Now first things first. I also believe in God the creator. In science, proper science, you get a lot of missing links and you realize SOMEONE SUPERIOR is behind creation. Read about DNA, read about Laminin. If you don't see God in that, I'll stop this dialogue. Now THAT God,THE GOD OF CREATION, has existed for Bajillions years ago (NOTE: that is larger than Zillion, or Gazillion...). It is called ETERNITY. Time makes no sense in that calculation. So yes, and as the creattor says in His Book. The Earth was without form and order. Therefore some matterials of this earth, indeed could be very very old, and so some scientific metholodogies can capture those years. But I say - nay I repeat what the ONE who created things makes clear - human beings, starting from our Ancesstor Adam, have been here for less than 7,000 years old (Seven Thousand, mr Gee4real). Now can we talk science? My guess is, you'll now keep quiet! source - THE BIBLE. if you prefer Wikipedia to the Bible, that is your cup of tea.
@kofi, please don't embarras yourself with bogus claim that you are a scientist. What school did u get your science degree? Agbogbloshie market? Humans have been here since over 200,000 years now and the earth has been around over 3.7 billion years. The algorithms used to calculate what the researchers came up with is clearly beyond your comprehension.Please go and read the original published paper before you confuse people.Humans have been around longer than 7000 years...please educate yourself well mr scientist. Thanks,
Boss, You are right. The entire human history is less than 7,000 years old! This research is class one research. You don't need to go to school to say some of this things.
...in less than 5 million years? Less than? And that is a rapid deterioration? As a scientist myself, these types of science makes me think I should have studied commerce and trading, and not to have bothered my head with HCL, NaCl etc. The entire human history is less than 7,000 years old! Seven Thousand!