Delthrien Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 A question for any budding geneticists (or fully fledged ones for that matter..). If I remember my rudimentary genetics info from High School biology (and that is much farther back in my history than I care to remember...) Females are XX and Males are XY. Does anyone know of the existence of a YY chromosome out there? I believe there may be a couple of genetic disorders in which the patient may have an extra chromosome (as in XYY) or some such, but I've no idea what that entails for the "fortunate" individual. The reason for the curiosity is that there is a character concept in which the character is dubbed "The First Man" who genetically is YY. I just wondered if this is firmly in the realm of comic book "pseudo-science" or if there might be a spark of reality in the mix... Inquiring minds and all that... Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug McCrae Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 From the Encyclopaedia Britannica - XYY-trisomy Relatively common human sex chromosome anomaly in which a male has two Y chromosomes rather than one. It occurs in 1 in 500–1,000 live male births, and individuals with the anomaly are often characterized by tallness and severe acne and sometimes by skeletal malformations and mental deficiency. It has been suggested that the presence of an extra Y chromosome in an individual may cause him to be more aggressive and prone to criminal behaviour, a condition called the “supermale†syndrome. Studies of prison populations have tended to confirm this hypothesis; but subsequent studies of the general population, especially those in which affected individuals were observed from early childhood over a long period of time, have cast serious doubt on the validity of linking the chromosomal anomaly directly to behavioral abnormalities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rage Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 YY is invalid or atleast has never been reported. but diferent amounts of those chromosomes can produced people who a very handicapped there are super males and superfemales XXX XXXX XXY XYY XYYY etc I have a medical text book lieing around somewhere with what they usually do. Mostly its downsyndrome like characteristics with some extra life threatening stuff thrown in (like heart and lung conditions etc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acroyear Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 Looks like, the X part is essential to existing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delthrien Posted March 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 This just in... Just found this from the MadSci Network (© 1997, Washington University Medical School) Can you have a yy genotype and produce a person out of it? No, it is impossible to produce a viable human that is lacking an X chromosome, as in a yy individual. There are several genes on the X chromosome that cause disease when deleted, such as the genes for Haemophilia, Menkes syndrome, familial Leukodystrophy, and several others genes that are homozygous lethal, i.e. at least one copy is required for the person to survive. An embryo without any X chromosomes would not have any copies of any of these genes, and would die early in development. There are individuals with three of sex-chromosomes: XXY (Klinefelter's Syndrome) individuals are male with abherent female characteristics and are ususally sterile; XYY are male and may show increased aggression; and XXX (triple X syndrome) are female and may show slight retardation (even though the scientific results are inconclusive, the XYY and XXX syndromes have been the subjects of much political debate by people trying to prove that all men are killers and all women are stupid). There are also individuals with only one sex-chromosome: X0 (Turner's syndrome) individuals are female with various minor developmental defects and are usually sterile; Y0, like YY, is inviable. Guess that pretty well sums it up, eh? I seem to remeber something from an episode of the X-files where someone tested as "XYZ" -- the Z chromosome apparently indicating extraterrestrial origin. Cool, in a geeky sort of way. On yet another tangent, has anyone used genetics (other than Mutant origins...) in their games? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZootSoot Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 Re: More "Man" than Most... Originally posted by Delthrien A question for any budding geneticists (or fully fledged ones for that matter..). If I remember my rudimentary genetics info from High School biology (and that is much farther back in my history than I care to remember...) Females are XX and Males are XY. Does anyone know of the existence of a YY chromosome out there? I believe there may be a couple of genetic disorders in which the patient may have an extra chromosome (as in XYY) or some such, but I've no idea what that entails for the "fortunate" individual. The reason for the curiosity is that there is a character concept in which the character is dubbed "The First Man" who genetically is YY. I just wondered if this is firmly in the realm of comic book "pseudo-science" or if there might be a spark of reality in the mix... Inquiring minds and all that... Charlie Many birth defects are much more common in men becaue the Y chromosone does not carry as much information as the X so a single defective gene is often all that is necessary to give heamophilia or red-green color blindness to a male while a female would need two copies of it. An individual without an X chromosone would not be viable. However, there are men who have XYY (and women with XXY) chromosones. These individuals tend to have exagerrated musculature, be "ugly" and very hirsute; they have high level of natural testosterone (and are the official reason why hormone tests for athletes are so lenient); there may be a mild form of mental retardation associated with the male condition and there is a disproportionate number of XXY males in the prison population (apparently they look more driminal and are thus easier to convict). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acroyear Posted March 9, 2003 Report Share Posted March 9, 2003 Re: This just in... Originally posted by Delthrien On yet another tangent, has anyone used genetics (other than Mutant origins...) in their games? Yep, tons. One character was actually big on genetic engineering and alteration and "edited" all of her children to be super duper ubermen. She also, to some degree, used genetics to "cure" some metahumans of their abilities (hey, even Doc Savage labotomized crooks on occasion). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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