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Evolutionary geneticist: Men will extinct in 5m years' time


Vulcann
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Heard it over 88.3FM radio this morning so decided to Google a bit and found the following interesting piece of scientific news:

 

From Stuff:

 

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/8502191/Mens-...osome-is-doomed

 

Men's sex chromosome is doomed!

Last updated 08:06 03/04/2013

 

The poorly designed Y chromosome that makes men is degrading rapidly and will disappear, even if humans are still around.

 

Evolutionary geneticist Jenny Graves says that while the process is likely to happen within the next five million years, it could have begun in some isolated groups.

 

"As long as something came along it its stead, we would not even suspect without checking the chromosomes," she said on Tuesday.

 

Professor Graves, who first made the prediction some years ago, was in Canberra to give a public lecture on the subject for the Australian Academy of Science.

 

There have been dissenting research papers, but her prediction hasn't changed.

 

"It's very bad news for all the men here," she told her audience.

 

Professor Graves has been studying sex-determining genes in Australian animals to shed light on human genetics.

 

"You would think that sex is so important it wouldn't change a lot. But it changes all over the place and the Y chromosome sort of self-destructs," she said.

 

Y is always in the male and active mostly in the testes - making sperm.

 

That is a "very dangerous" place because there's a lot of cell division going on, she says.

 

With every split there's a chance for a mutation or gene loss.

 

"The X chromosome is all alone in the male, but in the female it has a friend so it can swap bits and repair itself. If the Y gets a hit it's a downward spiral."

 

The X has about 1000 genes left, too many relating to sex and intelligence, she says.

 

The smaller Y started with about 1700 genes but only has 45 left, and that's mostly "junk".

 

"It is a lovely example of what I call dumb design," she said.

 

"It is an evolutionary accident."

 

If humans don't become extinct, new sex-determining genes and chromosomes will evolve, maybe leading to the evolution of new hominid species.

 

This had happened in the Japanese spiny rat, which had survived the loss of its Y, she said.

 

Professor Graves is thinker-in-residence at Canberra University's Institute for Applied Ecology, a distinguished professor at the La Trobe Institute of Molecular Science, an ANU emeritus professor and University of Melbourne Professorial fellow.

 

 

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Siao liao only women folks left in 5,000,000 years time.....but does that mean no NS then liao? [laugh] [laugh]

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From zaobao:

 

http://realtime.zaobao.com.sg/2013/04/jg130404_019.shtml

 

澳洲科学家称500万年后男人将绝迹

(2013-04-04 1100)

 

(联合早报网讯)澳大利亚杰出的女性科学家葛瑞夫兹(Jenny Graves)说,男性来日无多,正走向绝迹,最终将于500万年后彻底消失。

 

据中央社报道,女性具有2条各包含约1000个基因的X染色体;男性仅有的1条Y染色体经数亿年演变,目前所剩基因不到100个,其中包括决定胚胎是否为男性的SRY关键基因。

 

女性的2条X染色体能够发挥重要的修复功能,而没有伴的男性Y染色体要进行修复就比较困难。

 

葛瑞夫兹认为,女性将笃定赢得性别战役。她表示,男性Y染色体天生脆弱,代表男性正走向灭绝。她预估,500万年后,Y染色体与男性将共同消失。

 

不过,英国伦敦大学学院的教授梅森(Chris Mason)声称,即使Y染色体未来真地逐渐削弱,医学也有足够时间进行挽救。

 

《联合早报网》

(编辑:苏亚华)

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(edited)

So if the scientists, many of them men, cannot solve the problem by then, all the women folks, if they are still recognisable or still named as such, will evolved into massive colonies of Hermaphrodites?

 

Life will be so boring henceforth... [:(] [:(]

Edited by Vulcann
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Guess we all won't live so long to know is true or not [laugh][laugh][laugh][laugh]

 

Maybe the NKs accidentally key in our little red dot as a legit US city and launch a nuke towards say AMK then ho say liao no worries at all forever liao [:p]

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Hypersonic

Should I tell all the ladies that they are running out of men to have sex with? Maybe they will consider ONS with me more [sly]

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(edited)

Siao liao only women folks left in 5,000,000 years time.....but does that mean no NS then liao? [laugh] [laugh]

 

By that time, robots take over NS. [laugh]

Edited by Holdenutessv
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so meaning our kkj will be sibeh tak liu in years to come?!?!

 

 

wrong, they found new and better substitute in years to come :D

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Twincharged

it's true! men are the weaker and faulty sex...

 

oh wait, i didnt see that the researcher was a lady [:p]

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