BENGALURU: Will all men disappear from earth one day? Raising this existential question for men, Prof
Jennifer Graves, evolutionary geneticist from
Australia, on Tuesday said disappearance of men is a possibility as the human male Y chromosome may be on the path to extinction.
Prof Jennifer, the first woman recipient of Australian Prime Minister's prize for science, was delivering the Academy Public Lecture on the topic 'Animal sex determination by genes, chromosomes and environment' at IISc.
Pointing out that there were 1,600 genes on the Y chromosome, which is responsible for the male sex developing, in non-human ancestors about 166 million years ago, she said: "Now, the number of genes on Y chromosome is down to about 45. If the trend continues, there may not be a Y chromosome in about 4.6 million years from now."
The geneticist, however, said the di sappearance of men is only a possibility as there could be other genomic modifications as well. "There is hope for men. A new sex determination gene may be evolved to replace the existing genes. Or humans might evolve another way of determining sex. Even the X chromosome may undergo drastic changes, we never know," she said.
She added that 4.6 million years is a long time and the human race itself may become extinct before that.
Prof Graves, who's working with La Trobe University, Australia, and is Emeritus Professor of the
Australian National University, has done pioneering research in the field of comparative genomics.
