A recent report suggests that the Y chromosome—the gene responsible for determining male sex in humans and other mammals—is nearing extinction. This study has generated significant interest on social media, with users sharing memes and raising questions. One user humorously commented, “Beta Bachao from now,” a nod to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s slogan, ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (Save the Girl Child, Educate the Girl Child). Another user remarked, “The Y chromosome isn’t disappearing, it’s just shrinking in size at a very very slow rate due to mutations. It will take millions of years to fully disappear, if at all. Calm down.”
How the Y Chromosome Determines Sex
The Y chromosome is one of the two sex chromosomes that determine a baby’s sex. Humans have two types of sex chromosomes: X and Y. Females have two X chromosomes, while males have one X and one Y chromosome. The Y chromosome is vital for male biology, as it carries the SRY gene, which triggers the development of male characteristics, including the formation of testes and the production of male hormones.
Is the Y Chromosome Becoming Extinct?
According to The Conversation, the Y chromosome is undergoing degeneration. Professor Jenny Graves, a genetics expert, illustrated this with the example of the platypus. “In platypus, the XY pair is just an ordinary chromosome with two equal members,” she explained. “This suggests that the mammal X and Y were an ordinary pair of chromosomes not that long ago.”
She further noted, “Over the 166 million years since humans and platypus began evolving separately, the Y chromosome has lost 900 to 55 active genes. This equates to a loss of about five genes per million years. At this rate, the remaining 55 genes will disappear within 11 million years.”
The Week reported that much of the Y chromosome consists of repetitive ‘junk DNA,’ making it unstable and potentially at risk of disappearing entirely over several generations. This raises the question of whether men could become extinct. Professor Graves suggested, “When humans run out of Y chromosomes, they may either become extinct (assuming we haven’t already gone extinct for other reasons), or they might evolve a new sex gene that defines new sex chromosomes.”
