Men will not disappear

Some scientists have been concerned that men will become extinct in about 50,000 years because the Y chromosome fades. But a recent study found that the Y chromosome is evolving faster than the rest of the human genome.

In mammals - including humans - sperm determines the sex of the fetus. Egg cells always carry the X chromosome, while the sperm can carry the X or Y chromosome. If the Y chromosome carries the egg with the egg, the fetus will be the male. Conversely, if the sperm carrying the X chromosome is combined with the egg, the fetus will be the female.

Not long ago, the Y chromosome was still considered a component in the genome because it had fewer genes than other chromosomes. Even a few years ago some scientists thought that the size of the Y chromosome was falling so fast that it could disappear in 50,000 years. If this ability happens, men will also disappear.

According to the AP, to find out whether this judgment is right or wrong, Dr. David Page - director of the Whitehead Biopharmaceutical Research Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA - conducted some research on chromatin Medicine of humans and chimpanzees for two years.

Chimpanzees are primates that are most closely related to humans. About 94-99.5% of their DNA is identical to human DNA.

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The team found that many parts of the Y chromosome of humans changed significantly. Even about 30% of genes on human chromosomes do not exist on the Y chromosome of chimpanzees. Meanwhile, the difference between the total number of human and chimpanzees is only about 2%. This suggests that the Y chromosome of humans evolves very quickly. These changes took place over the past 6 million years. Compared to the evolution of humans, the time period is quite close to the present time.

'The Y chromosome is the fastest evolutionary thing in the entire human chromosome. It's like a house that is often rebuilt , 'AP quoted Page.

Jennifer Hughes, a member of the research team, thinks men should not be happy because the Y chromosome evolves quickly, because that doesn't mean men are also evolving faster than women.

Page and Hughes provide a number of reasons to explain the rapid evolution of the Y chromosome. The nature of mating behavior is one of the reasons. When chimpanzees reach reproductive stage, they often mate with many males. So evolutionary pressure forces male chimpanzees to produce the best sperm to increase their ability to conceive. If a male's sperm enters the egg of female chimpanzees and forms an embryo, the male genes will be passed on to the next generation.