

Spermatogenic failure and the Y chromosome. Linear assembly of a human centromere on the YĬhromosome. Jain M, Olsen HE, Turner DJ, Stoddart D, Bulazel KV, Paten B, Haussler D,.
#X word in sex free#
Citation on PubMed or Free article on PubMed Central Protein structure predictionįor the male-specific region of the human Y chromosome.

Many genes are unique to the Y chromosome, but genes in areas known as pseudoautosomal regions are present on both sex chromosomes. Other genes on the Y chromosome are important for enabling men to father biological children (male fertility). Sex is determined by the SRY gene, which is responsible for the development of a fetus into a male. Because only males have the Y chromosome, the genes on this chromosome tend to be involved in male sex determination and development. The Y chromosome likely contains 70 to 200 genes that provide instructions for making proteins. Because researchers use different approaches to predict the number of genes on each chromosome, the estimated number of genes varies.

Identifying genes on each chromosome is an active area of genetic research. The Y chromosome is present in males, who have one X and one Y chromosome, while females have two X chromosomes. The Y chromosome spans more than 59 million building blocks of DNA (base pairs) and represents almost 2 percent of the total DNA in cells.Įach person normally has one pair of sex chromosomes in each cell. The sex chromosomes form one of the 23 pairs of human chromosomes in each cell. The Y chromosome is one of the two sex chromosomes in humans (the other is the X chromosome).
