The fickle Y chromosome

[Swede]

The male sex chromosome, long dismissed as the underachieving runt of the genome, has now been fully sequenced in a common chimpanzee. And comparison with its human counterpart — the only other Y chromosome to have been sequenced in such detail — reveals a rate of change that puts the rest of the genome to shame.

The common chimp (Pan troglodytes) and human Y chromosomes are "horrendously different from each other", says David Page of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the work. "It looks like there's been a dramatic renovation or reinvention of the Y chromosome in the chimpanzee and human lineages."


http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100113/full/463149a.html

[HereSince1628]

1. I never before heard of comparitive genetics described as 'horrendous'

Tremendous, yes I've heard that.

Molecular biology has become SO freaking judgmental!



:sarcasm:

[sharp_stick]

2. Well we in the

molecular biology game have been watching the 24 hour cable channels too. The only way to get any press at all these day's is to set it up as a competition between US and THEM.

FUCK PAN TROGLODYTES.... LONG RULE HOMO SAPIENS!! I expect a chimpanzee rebuttal at any time, and it will likely involve the flinging of poop. I think the gene for that response must be on the Y-chromosome.

;-)

[Orsino]

3. "...A rate of change that puts the rest of the genome to shame."

This is why we're so naturally handy with the remote.