Will Chromosome Y Go Bye-Bye?

[Natasha]

Will Chromosome Y Go Bye-Bye?

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MensHealthNews/story?id=8104217&page=1&cid=yahoo_pitchlist
7/17/09

What makes a man a man? Socially, that is a complicated question. Genetically, however, it is as simple as a single Y chromosome.

But guys, that chromosome is in trouble.

In a new study, researchers say there is a dramatic loss of genes from the human Y chromosome that eventually could lead to its complete disappearance -- in the next few millennia. While the Y chromosome's degeneration has been known to geneticists and evolutionary biologists for decades, the study sheds new light on some of the evolutionary processes that may have contributed to its demise and posits that, as the degeneration continues, the Y chromosome could disappear from our genetic repertoire entirely.