title: Higher incidence of small Y chromosome in humans with trisomy 21 (Down syndrome).
abstract: The length of the Y chromosome was measured in 42 black patients with trisomy 21 (47,XY,+21) and a similar number of normal individuals of American black ancestry. The length of the Y was expressed as a function of Y/F ratio and arbitrarily classified into five groups using subjectively defined criteria as follows: very small, small, average, large, and very large. Thirty-eight % of the trisomy 21 patients had small or very small Ys compared to 2.38% of the controls (P less than 0.01). In both populations the size of the Y was not normally distributed. In the normals it was skewed to the left, whereas in the Downs the distribution was flat (platykurtic). A significantly higher incidence of Y length heteromorphisms was noted in the Down as compared to the normal black population. In the light of our current understanding that about one-third of all trisomy 21 patients are due to paternal nondisjunction, it may be tempting to speculate that males with small Y are at an increased risk for nondisjunction of the 21 chromosome.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D044383:Black People; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012729:Sex Chromosome Aberrations / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics*; D014998:Y Chromosome