We often refer to females as a 'weaker sex', but little we know that male population is already on the road to extinction. Does it mean that all the males would be extinct and only females would survive?
Yes indeed, it may sound queer, but the fact is that male population in coming years would tend to decline drastically and at time might even go extinct. This might happen due to inherent weakness of Y chromosome in male body.
To know how exactly this would happen let us begin at the beginning.
I assume we all know that we humans have 23 pairs of Chromosomes. Only one pair out of these determines the gender of human species. The X chromosomes carry in it the feminine traits and Y-chromosomes carries the male features. It means females carry only X chromosome and males carry both X and Y-chromosomes. Please note that while females carry in them the XX combination the males carry XY combination, which gives them the male features. There is no YY combination and thus; all males are 50% females.
It is actually male, which decides the gender of the offspring. It decides if the offspring would be male or a female.
It is the absence of YY chromosomes in males, which is making it an endangered species.
The Y chromosome in male body has an inherent weakness. Since females do not have in their bodies Y-chromosomes, they do not suffer from any such weakness. Therefore, only males face the risk of extinction, but not the females.
Many do not know that X chromosome in female body is significantly different from Y chromosome, which is the sex-determining agent in the male body. The Y chromosome in male body is just about one-third the size of X chromosome. At the initial stage of human evolution the size of X and Y Chromosomes used to be the same, but as generations advanced today the Y chromosome lost most of it genes. Due to this, the Y chromosome has been reduced to its current size.
This sort of unprecedented change has given rise to the speculation whether Y-Chromosome would be able to survive for another few million years. There is a possibility that it might eventually vanish and thus, may cause the male population to go extinct. Right now, the biologists do not know if any other Chromosome in the human body will be able to take over the function of Y chromosome. If Biologists do not find an efficacious solution, then it would definitely cause a threat to very existence of humanity.
The Y-chromosomes are decreasing in size because of its inherent inability to repair itself through cross over with its chromosomal pair. In females if DNA of the one of the X chromosome suffers damage it is able to repair itself by copying over the DNA from the other X chromosome since the woman has another pair of X chromosome in her body. Males are at a disadvantage because they do not have YY chromosomes, but only XY chromosomes. The inability of Y chromosome to repair itself is causing it to reduce in size.
Doesn't all this make males a 'weaker sex' as in comparison to its female counterpart? It seems that there is a sort of irreversible genetic decay, which is taking place in the male bodies. The specific causes could be many. Maybe it is their lifestyle, which is different from women's lifestyle in many ways.
We find men smoke and drink. Since man is the provider, he has to go out and work and thus, he is exposed more to Sun's ultra violet rays and X-rays. Chemical content in the environment and toxic content in the food could be one of the causes. The women, though they stay indoors also could be suffering some damage, but the advantage is that their system is able to repair the damage because of two XX chromosomes.
On the other hand DNA damage in males is being unattended. Could there be a mechanism to repair the damaged DNA in males? The males would continue to accumulate the defective genes and pass on to their progeny. Consequently, the male population one day might go extinct.
Maybe the humans will be able to stall the trend by changing their lifestyle, by changing their food habits, by not being promiscuous and by not marrying the close cousins. However, they would never be able to reverse the trend. The human extinction is sure and certain, unless we believe in Krishna's promise given in Gita that whenever the dharma is on decline I would appear.
Even Bible contains a redemptive plan of God for humanity. According to this plan, whenever humanity is in distress God would come as his own son to save them. Can we depend on Jesus Christ's promise that he would come again? Jesus and Krishna might carry in their bodies the genes, which would be the replacement for perishable Y-chromosomes in human body.
God had saved Homo sapiens once by coming as Adam the first man on this planet. Thereafter, he came again to give humans a kindly and humane nature. Let us hope that he would do it again.
Maybe the word extinction for humans is a misnomer. Humans do not become extinct, but they simply change into a species of a better kind. They become less agile physically, but more developed mentally. They develop a greater problem solving ability than their predecessors had.
The creature before the man in the course of evolution stood upright with a superior mental development, a power of articulate speech and a flat face. The predecessor of man had 1438 genes out of which he had lost 1393. This occurred nearly 25 million years ago. There has been no further loss of genes ever since.
This indicates that deterioration of Y-chromosomes takes place only in males, but not in females. It means only males continue to evolve, but not the females. Once the evolution is complete, the male population come forward to raise the level of female population as well. They form a sexual alliance with the best females available in the group. If their selection is right, they both together produce progeny in the semblance of male, and if the selection is wrong, then they produce progeny in the semblance of female.
To explain further what I mean by right and wrong selection the right selection is if the male who underwent mutation will form an alliance with the female belonging to the backward group. If a male belonging to the backward groups form an alliance with the female member of the advanced group, the children born through such alliance would be despicable. The idea is that the male should act as a scion and female should act as a stock. The man must confer on the progeny a higher nature and the woman must bestow on her child her base nature. To know how this happens please read all about rose culture. The female must give a part of her base nature to enable the child to survive in the hostile world. She alters the quantity as yeast to suit the environment the child must live and develop.
The loss of Y chromosome observed in humans is a kind of genetic drift, which is taking place in human population. Before all the genes in Y chromosome are lost, another gene would replace the SRY gene. A further mutation would take place. Far advanced males would evolve. They will once again form an alliance with the existing females and this phase would be the harbinger of new race of human species.
Therefore, we have nothing to fear, we are simply evolving to become better species.