RE: virus: eply to walter and some smurfy thoughts...

From: Blunderov (squooker@mweb.co.za)
Date: Tue Sep 02 2003 - 02:25:03 MDT

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    Dr Sebby wrote:
    <snip>
    was the source of their
    happiness the fact that they only had masturbation to deal with, and not

    women?
    </snip>

    I was reminded of an article I read in the Sunday papers the other day
    in which some or another eminent professor of genetics predicted the end
    of the male, and also that women of the future would successfully
    reproduce with one another using only x. The reason given for this was
    that the y chromosome was riddled with defects and anomalies and would,
    like the Marxist state, whither away.

    Turns out the smurfs have no need to worry and may continue to cast
    their seed upon the ground with gay abandon:
      
    http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/genome/thegenome/hg01n003.html

    <snip>
    The self-repairing Y chromosome unveiled
    18/6/03. By MIT

    In the biological battle between the sexes, the Y chromosome has
    suffered defeat after defeat. The male-determining chromosome has seen
    its gene supply shrink from more than 1000 genes when sex chromosomes
    first evolved, to what scientists once thought was only a handful of
    genes, a downward trend predicted to continue until the Y disappeared
    altogether.

    But two studies presented on 18 June 2003 and published in the journal
    Nature suggest that the rumours of the Y's demise have been greatly
    exaggerated. Researchers from Whitehead Institute for Biomedical
    Research in Cambridge, Mass., and Washington University School of
    Medicine in St Louis found that not only does the Y contain far more
    genes than scientists thought - the team found about 78 genes - it also
    includes a large number of genes arranged in pairs along this single
    chromosome in ways that may allow the Y to mimic the paired chromosome
    structure of the rest of the genome.

    The Y contains more genes than expected and can repair injured genes.
      
    The findings, involving observations in both human and chimp male
    chromosomes, could explain how the Y repairs injured genes without the
    benefit of sexual recombination - the method of gene repair used by all
    other chromosomes. It's an elegant system that would debunk the theory
    of a 'rotting Y' - the widely held notion that the male chromosome and
    its dead or dying genes will continue to rot away over the next 5
    million years until there's nothing left.

    "We have a new way of understanding how the rotting tendencies of the Y
    are counteracted," said lead researcher David Page.

    All chromosomes in the nucleus come in pairs - except the Y. Each member
    of a chromosomal pair draws on its mate for genetic repair through
    sexual recombination. When one half suffers a genetic injury, as is the
    case with many diseases, it can discard the mutated gene and replace it
    with a normal copy drawn from the other member of the pair. But the Y
    has no sexual 'partner' with which to swap out defective genes.

    "Genes constantly are being bombarded with little injuries - mutations.
    Mutations can either be beneficial or detrimental, but they are far more
    often detrimental," said Page. "On the Y, detrimental mutations cannot
    be discarded."

    There's no question that this inability to discard has cost the Y
    hundreds of genes over time. Many of the chromosome's genes either have
    weakened or died out altogether. Sexual recombination is a card game the
    Y just can't win. But this new research suggests it doesn't always need
    to. For critical genes, it swaps with itself.

    "This study shows that the Y chromosome has become very efficient at
    preserving its important genes," said co-lead investigator Richard K
    Wilson, director of the Genome Sequencing Center at Washington
    University School of Medicine in St Louis. "It's found different ways to
    do the things chromosomes must do to evolve, survive and thrive."
    </snip>

    Perhaps there are here at least some of the answers you requested Dr.
    Sebby?

    Fond Regards and love to the smurfs
    Blunderov

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