Approximately one in every 500 to 650 baby boys is born with an extra X chromosome, a variation in their genetic code that until a few years ago was thought to result in infertility in all cases.

The near-neutral model of B chromosome evolution predicts that population invasion is quite fast. To test this prediction, in 1994, we introduced males of the grasshopper Eyprepocnemis plorans from a ...

Advancements in genome sequencing have challenged the long-standing belief that the position of the centromere in the chromosome is fixed. Researchers from Okayama University, Japan, have analyzed ...

When plants end up with the wrong number of chromosomes, the consequences are usually dire. Cells starved of, or overloaded ...

How do living things evolve? What is the myriad of processes by which generic variations in a population affect organisms' survival and allow reproduction in an ever-changing environment? Why do these ...

Human sex chromosomes originated from a pair of autosomes, the ordinary or non-sex chromosomes that contain the majority of our genome and come in identical pairs. That ancestral pair of autosomes ...

The 23rd chromosome base pair contains what are known as our sex chromosomes. For most females, this pair contains two X chromosomes, while for most males, it contains one X chromosome and one Y ...

Understanding the material basis of adaptive evolution has been a central goal in biology dating back to at least the time of Darwin. One focus of current debates is whether adaptive evolution relies ...

A 3D graphic showing an artist's interpretation of human X and Y chromosomes. On the left are blue bundles of genetic material making an X shape and on the right blue bundles of genetic material ...