The birth of a male sex chromosome in Atlantic herring
Tuesday, September 8, 2020 - 07:31
in Biology & Nature
The evolution of sex chromosomes is of crucial importance in biology as it stabilizes the mechanism underlying sex determination and usually results in an equal sex ratio. An international team of scientists, led by researchers from Uppsala University, now reports that they have been able to reconstruct the birth of a male sex chromosome in the Atlantic herring. The male-specific region is tiny and contains only three genes: a sex-determining factor and two genes for sperm proteins.