If the Y chromosome is contained only in male haploid cells, then...?

Question

...does that mean that there are certain traits that are passed on from a father to son, etc. Therefore there would be traits that are passed on indefinitely from male to male to male, etc?

Answer 1

There are only 78 genes on the Y, but they do get passed from father to son forever.

Answer 2

Before we approach the question, we have to understand the sex-determination genetic mechanism in human. Basically females have XX chromosomes while males have XY chromosomes. Hence we can deduce that Y chromosome is the sex-determining chromosome.

It is logically correct to say that the son will inherit the Y chromosome from the dad, so any defect in the dad's Y chromosome will be passed on indefinitely to the future male generation.

However, since females lack the Y chromosome and they have almost the same biological characteristics and traits like man, the Y chromosome is said to contain NO vital genes, hence they rarely possess any important genes that determine a man's traits. A mutation in the SRY gene (which codes for testicular development) in the Y chromosome will make a man to have female phenotypes. And since only one sex chromosome is normal (the X chromosome), the man will suffer from infertility, hence being unable to pass the defective Y chromosome to the son.

Hence we can conclude that there will not be any traits passed on indefinitely from male to male... hope this helps! If this is confusing I will be happy to explain this in simpler terms =)

Answer 3

You can build a family tree using the "Y" chromosome..

Except for random mutations, a son inherits an exact copy of his father's Y chromosome, which he inherited from his father and so on and so on......