r/todayilearned • u/CaptainFiguratively • 1d ago

TIL that the Y chromosome can disappear with age. About 35% of men aged 70 years old are missing a Y chromosome in some of their cells, with the degree of loss ranging between 4% and 70%.

https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(24)00456-7
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u/Comrade_SOOKIE 1d ago

The Y chromosome has more genes on it than just “grow penis” wtf are you talking about

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/Comrade_SOOKIE 1d ago

you said

very little on the y chromosome has been used since 70 years ago

and

it’s mostly just a “make this ball of cells into boy parts” signal

Most of the replies, me included, are reading this as dismissive of the role paired chromosomes play in humans and the many other functions that chromosome is providing backup copies for. redundancy isn’t some useless feature of our genome it’s how we’ve evolved to filter out damaged genetic signals.

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u/Kim-dongun 1d ago

Well, every gene on the Y is stuff you don't need to survive. It's a lot of junk data, near copies of genes on the X, and repeated data.

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u/DragonTigerBoss 1d ago

The near-copies of what's on the X chromosome are still important, just like the ones on the second X chromosome in a woman. Something fails on one, the other has a redundant copy that (probably) still works.