Scientists have finally decoded mysteries of the Y chromosome. Here's why it matters (CNN)
By Katie Hunt, CNN
Updated 4:17 PM EDT, Fri August 25, 2023
CNN —
Scientists have fully sequenced the Y chromosome for the first time, uncovering information that could have implications for the study of male infertility and other health problems.
Neanderthals differ in DNA from what scientists call "modern humans" by less than 1%.
Scientists sequence the complete human genome for the first time
The first attempt to determine the building blocks of our genetic code took place 20 years ago, but there were still significant gaps left in the sequences of all 23 pairs of human chromosomes. Those blanks were largely filled in last year by an international group of 100 scientists called the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium.
However, over half of the sequences within the Y chromosome, the smallest and most complicated of the 46 human chromosomes, remained unknown. Now, the same group of researchers has filled in the missing information, publishing a complete Y chromosome sequence Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“Just a few years ago, half of the human Y chromosome was missing (from the reference),” said Monika Cechova, co-lead author on the paper and postdoctoral scholar in biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in a statement.
“Back then we didn’t even know if it could be sequenced, it was so puzzling,” Cechova added. “This is really a huge shift in what’s possible.”
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more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/25/world/y-chromosome-fully-sequenced-scn/index.html
It turns out the Y chromosome is linked to a lot more than just gender determination. Interesting reading.
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