Functional Male mice without Y chromosome created : What use is the Y Chromosome?

"Male mice without Y chromosome can father offspringsScientists have created male mice without a Y chromosome - a symbol of maleness - that are still able to sire offspring with assisted reproduction."

Basically they determine that only 2 genes of the Y chromosome where necessary to the mouse, and they created alternatives to those two genes in other chromosomes. Removed the Y and demonstrated the animal could develop normally, and could reproduce. Not all the males could reproduced and this was blamed on the alternative genes as being sub-optimal.

The theory goes that because the Y chromosomes can't recombine in meiosis that evolution is slowly leach all the necessary genes off it to the other chromosomes via mutation, turning the Y chromosome into nothing more then the holder of a few genetic "keys" for activating the genes for maleness in the other chromosomes. Ideally evolutionary pressure would do away with the Y chromosome altogether and turn sex determination into an gene activation/epigenetic factor. That is sex type is determined by if a single key gene is activated or not, not if a whole chromosomes is present or not.

Many animals have already evolved such an elegant system of sex typing. Others less so, the platypus for example, which has failed to exploit or be provided by nature the necessary mutations to clean up its genome in this matter, either that or god was tripping balls when he made the platypus.

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Could you provide the link to this work .
I suppose on the whole chromosome there are other gene performing other needs in the organism .
You are saying remove the active gere and the rest of the chromosome have no function ?

 

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