Studies on Y chromosome released

ST LOUIS, Mo., June 18 (UPI) -- Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found the Y chromosome is able to fix itself because it carries multiple copies of its genes.

Unlike other chromosomes, which come in pairs, the Y chromosome, which makes a fertilized egg male, is singular and carries 78 genes -- nearly twice the number originally thought.

"This study shows that the Y chromosome has become very efficient at preserving its important genes," said Richard Wilson, director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington University School of Medicine. "It begins to give us a basic understanding of the genetics of reproductive strategies and their evolution."

Scientists had long wondered how the Y chromosome protects essential genes from damage. Earlier research by Wilson and David Page of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass., showed genes on the Y chromosome are devoted almost entirely to maleness and male fertility and that most of them are active only in the testes.

The study was one of two published in the June 19 issue of the journal Nature. The second study involved DNA sequencing in chimps.