Re: Platypus genome

[evelyn sobielski <koreke77@yahoo.de>]

> (much like humans appear 
> to be losing theirs).

Actually that's a general trend in mammals, and human
Y chromosomes are not that much reduced -
_Sminthopsis_ is the crassest case known (one-fifth
the mammal one's size, 4 functional genes), and
they're marsupials. I don't know if there's a
phylogenetic pattern in Y chromosome reduction, but
the only thing that's really crucial on that thing is
the SRY gene. And that can transpose - rarely, but it
has happened at least once and perhaps twice in
_Ellobius_ (a rodent).

Eike


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