Carvalho A Bernardo
Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Postal 68011, CEP 21944-970, Caixa, Brazil.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2002 Dec;12(6):664-8. doi: 10.1016/s0959-437x(02)00356-8.
Three recent findings are making a deep impact on our understanding of the Drosophila Y. First, the sequencing of the Drosophila genome and the development of proper computational methods increased the number of known single-copy Y-linked genes from 1 to 16, and revealed a chromosome packed with genes acquired from the autosomes. Second, this, coupled with the finding that B-chromosomes are able to show very regular segregation from the X chromosome, reinforce the hypothesis that the Drosophila Y is a specialized B-chromosome, instead of a degenerated homologue of the X. Third and finally, Y chromosomes seem to have a strong effect on male fitness.
最近的三项研究结果对我们理解果蝇的Y染色体产生了深远影响。首先，果蝇基因组测序以及合适计算方法的发展，使已知的单拷贝Y连锁基因数量从1个增加到了16个，并揭示了一条充满从常染色体获取的基因的染色体。其次，这一结果，再加上发现B染色体能够与X染色体非常规律地分离，强化了这样一种假设，即果蝇的Y染色体是一种特化的B染色体，而不是X染色体的退化同源物。第三也是最后一点，Y染色体似乎对雄性适应性有很强的影响。
