Researchers have figured out how the Amami spiny rat lost its Y chromosome, and some believe the same fate may be in store for humans
gene that triggers the development of testes.
The Amami spiny rat , found on the Japanese island of Amami Ōshima, is one of just a handful of mammals that lack Y chromosomes. What’s more, females as well as males have just a single X chromosome. As the existence of female mammals shows, the shrunken Y doesn’t contain any crucial genes, so cells and individuals can survive its loss. In fact, recent studies show. But the loss of the Y from an entire population should result in extinction, because there would be no more males.
To find out how male spiny rats still exist, Kuroiwa and her team first sequenced the genomes of several males and females, but didn’t find any variants unique to males. They then looked more closely and found that in male rats, one of the two copies of chromosome 3 has a duplicated region, right next toThe team did a number of experiments – including adding the duplicated region to mice – to show that this duplication boosts the activity of.
To demonstrate this beyond doubt, the team would have to delete the duplication in spiny rats to show that no males develop, says
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