Men aren't going to die out

[scullion]

Men AREN'T going to die out: The male Y chromosome is here 'for the long haul'

* Although male Y chromosome HAS shrunk, it won't disappear
* Male chromosome is crucial to fertility and 'here for the long haul'
* Study of similar W chromosome in chickens

By Rob Waugh

PUBLISHED: 18:23, 8 May 2012 | UPDATED: 18:23, 8 May 2012

* Comments (22)
* Share

Previous research has suggested the male Y chromosome is shrinking, and could disappear altogether within the next five million years - but it seems to be simply wrong.

But a new study of the similar 'W' chromosome in chickens has found that although the chromosomes have shrunk, the ones that remain are crucial to fertility.

It means the theory men are facing extinction because three hundred million years ago the Y chromosome had about 1,400 genes and now it's only got 45 is well wide of the mark.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), looked at how genes on sex-linked chromosomes are passed down generations and linked to fertility, using the specific example of the W chromosome in female chickens.

The results confirm that although these chromosomes have shrunk over millions of years, and have lost many of their original genes, those that remain are extremely important in predicting fertility and are, therefore, unlikely to become extinct.

Professor Judith Mank, from the UCL Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment and senior author said: ‘Y chromosomes are here to stay, and are not the genetic wasteland that they were once thought to be.’

W chromosomes in female chickens are entirely analogous to Y chromosomes in men in that they are sex-limited and do not re-combine when males and females reproduce, as the other regions of the genome do.

Men AREN'T going to die out: The male Y chromosome is here 'for the long haul' | Mail Online

looks like it's time for plan B.

[Marx]

That'll piss the feminists off.





Good.

[nivek]

three hundred million years ago the Y chromosome had about 1,400 genes and now it's only got 45 .

Perfection takes a long time ........ but we are getting there gentlemen

[pzreb]

I read a study similar to this maybe a year ago that stated the Y chromosome is actually mutating and evolving faster than the X chromosome. It was on Yahoo News.

[MrWombat]

Can't believe anyone ever took this notion seriously. The most casual exercise of common sense - in combination with the most basic idea of the role of genes and how they evolve - exposes it as stupid. The one thing that is never cred out of a genome is the ability to breed. Duh.

[Olivier Haugh]

LOL! this "study" deserves to be published in the Journal of Improbable Research. After hundreds of millions of years of evolving, we're going to shift suddenly (in just a few million years) to asexual breeding?
ah, maybe via artificial processes supplied by technology, but no way will natural selection ever get us there.

[Marx]

After hundreds of millions of years of evolving, we're going to shift suddenly (in just a few million years) to asexual breeding?
ah, maybe via artificial processes supplied by technology, but no way will natural selection ever get us there.

Some feminists are pushing for this.. Look at the RadFemHub.

[AzureBlue]

I read the delightful radfem hub's comments about this. I had an argument with a pro-feminist bloke about it, he claimed that the nutters of radfem hub are not representative of all radfems. I think I managed to change his mind, but you can never tell, pro-feminist men are very resistant to facts, unfortunately.

[FloatyBoaty]

Some feminists are pushing for this.. Look at the RadFemHub.

I read a book about something like that. Men and women lived on different planets - literally - and had great disdain for each other. Turns out, men and women still wanted the opposite sex.