Genome promise

masculinity. ‘I should imagine, when they opened up the Y-chromosome, scientists thought they knew what they would see,’ wrote Caitlin Moran in the Times of London. ‘A pile of old vinyl. The off-side rule. Pants their mothers bought them. A Yorkie bar. Absolute, unbloodied optimism that you can succeed at anything — rewiring a whole house, winning a war, lifting something heavy — except fighting off the common cold and wrapping up presents.’ Even Page himself joined in the fun. At a news conference in Washington, he showed an illustration he’d found on the web that identified the various genes on the Y chromosome, including one for changing TV channels constantly and another that explains why men refuse to ask for directions. He also erected a handy straw man — the assertion that Y chromosomes garner no respect because some biologists claim they are slipping toward extinction as they lose genes that they cannot replace through recombination. Plenty of papers picked up on that theme, including the Boston Herald. ‘Great news for men! Maybe not such great news for women! The exclusively male Y chromosome, which determines gender, is capable of repairing itself and is not headed for extinction in the next 10 million years as some scientists have theorized.’ The Los Angeles Times also led with that angle. ‘In scientific circles, the Y chromosome — the essence of masculinity — is scorned as the runt of the human genetic family, so henpecked by mutations that it is wasting away. So little respect does this small, self-absorbed chromosome command that scientists investigating the human genome felt free to jeer or mostly ignore it — until now.’ It turns out the Y chromosome is more ‘subtle, robust and complex’ than scientists had realized, the article continued. And, as much fun as it is to talk about sex and male failings, most science writers also couldn’t resist the intriguing biology that Current Biology Vol 13 No 14 R544