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The sex chromosome that refused to die
Author(s) -
Malone John H.,
Oliver Brian
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
bioessays
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.175
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1521-1878
pISSN - 0265-9247
DOI - 10.1002/bies.20752
Subject(s) - biology , transposable element , drosophila melanogaster , heterochromatin , genetics , y chromosome , genome , chromosome , gene , evolutionary biology , melanogaster , autosome , x chromosome
Chromosomes that harbor dominant sex determination loci are predicted to erode over time—losing genes, accumulating transposable elements, degenerating into a functional wasteland and ultimately becoming extinct. The Drosophila melanogaster Y chromosome is fairly far along this path to oblivion. The few genes on largely heterochromatic Y chromosome are required for spermatocyte‐specific functions, but have no role in other tissues. Surprisingly, a recent paper shows that divergent Y chromosomes can substantially influence gene expression throughout the D. melanogaster genome.1 These results show that variation on Y has an important influence on the deployment of the genome. BioEssays 30:409–411, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.