Man Without Qualities


Wednesday, June 18, 2003


DNA Held In An Idle Hand?

The closest look yet at the Y chromosome -- which makes men different from women at the most basic level -- shows it is not as puny as scientists believed, researchers reported on Wednesday. ....

Scientists believed it was not capable of pairing up with its partner, the X, to repair defects the way other genes can. ... But to their surprise, the scientists found that the genes in this region are in fact palindromes -- the sequences read the same backwards and forwards, similar to the numbers in the year "2002," only much, much longer.

And the chromosome can form little loops in which the genes at one end can press against the genes at the other end of the palindrome, swapping sequences and thus repairing -- or passing along -- mutations. .... "Testes make testosterone. Testosterone makes for male behavior. That is the prevailing view,"


Does MAXIM know about this?


Comments:
A google search for "DNA held in an idle hand" yielded this one site.
 
Post a Comment

Home