Y Chromosome

The ability to sequence the Y chromosome, a relatively recent development in the field of genomics research, is discussed in two papers published in the August 2, 2013 issue of Science. The male-specific portion of the Y chromosome, a region of the DNA strand that does not normally exchange base pairs with the nearby X chromosome, is "a powerful tool with which to study human history" and determine when the most common male ancestors existed. Courtesy: National Human Genome Research Institute