Genome: Chromosome 8 – Conflict

This chromosome is a sex-link chromosome, also called the X and Y chromosome. Male and female traits include bigger muscles, aggressiveness in males, or using calcium to produce milk in females. This chapter is named conflict because of the evidence showing that both X and Y chromosome fight for genes, a battle over dominance between both chromosomes. The X and Y chromosome have sexually antagonistic genes, meaning that their genes only benefit one sex. Since there are more X chromosomes in the world than Y chromosomes, they have a higher probability of mutating and forming a gene lethal to the Y chromosome. Most genes on the Y chromosome serve no purpose but males will become more feminine over the years.