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Men lose their Y chromosome as they age – how it may matter

9 pointsby bikenagatoday at 6:54 PM4 commentsview on HN

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bikenagatoday at 6:54 PM

Original title: "Men lose their Y chromosome as they age. Scientists thought it didn’t matter – but now we’re learning more"

rustyhancocktoday at 7:13 PM

Utterly bewildering that this can happen.

I'd never heard of it.

It does seem that it's in a sense pre cancerous although the article seems not to say so outright.

An acquired genetic change, following errors replication and mistakes in cell division that leads to cells having an "advantage". Associated with aging, smoking and increased mortality...

If you didn't know it was about this Y loss, it would seem to be directly referencing a pre cancerous condition.

mrguyoramatoday at 7:17 PM

Human species is "losing", ie evolving away from, the Y chromosome in general. Keeping up an entire Chromosome is expensive and "Inefficient" from evolution's point of view.

Human society meanwhile has disrupted a lot of "natural" processes of evolution, so I have no clue how this will play out.

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galleywest200today at 7:30 PM

Ignorant question: would this mean older fathers are more likely to produce daughters?

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