From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
- "Adam's Curse" is also
the title of a poem by
William Butler Yeats.
Adam's Curse: A Story of
Sex, Genetics, and the Extinction
of Men is a 2003 book by
Oxford University human
genetics professor
Bryan Sykes expounding his
hypothesis that with the declining
sperm count in men and the
continual atrophy of the
Y chromosome, within 5,000
generations (approximately 125,000
years) the male of the human
species will become extinct.
Sykes believes one of the
options for the survival of
humanity is unisex reproduction by
females: female eggs fertilised by
the nuclear
X chromosomes of another
female and implanted using
in vitro fertilisation
methods. He also introduces the
possibility of moving the SRY and
associated genes responsible for
maleness and male fertility be to
another chromosome, which he
refers to as "the Adonis
chromosome", engendering fertile
males with an XX karyotype.
Opposing view
The Y chromosome may wither to
the absolute minimum needed to
sustain reproduction (e.g. in
kangaroos it has withered to a
single
gene), but no more, because a
chromosome that won't breed won't
be carried to its descendants -
therefore, only functioning Y
chromosomes will be passed on to
future generations.
A further point of contention
is that declining sperm counts
have been linked to
industrialisation, with
environmental toxification as the
presumed mechanism. If this is
indeed the cause, then there is no
reason to believe that a solution
to the pollution problem won't
also lead to a return to
historical levels of male
fertility.
See also
References
- Sykes, Bryan (2003).
Adam's Curse: A Story of Sex,
Genetics, and the Extinction of
Men. London: Bantam Press.
ISBN 0-593-05004-5
