What exactly did 3 men do 6,000 years ago that could breed 50% of the men in our country today?

Have you ever wondered who your ancient ancestors were?

Professor Wang Chuanchao of Fudan University, through the Y chromosome, found that half of the males in China today are descended from 3 males between 5000 and 7000 years, which means that if you are a male, you are also likely to be descended from these 3 males, so what is this all about?

Y chromosome

If you are a female, you can trace your female ancestors back to ancient times through the mitochondrial DNA in your own body.

This is because the human body initially develops from a fertilized egg, in which the egg provides the mitochondrial DNA. The mitochondrial DNA in the sperm is destroyed when it enters the egg, so the mitochondrial DNA carried by the father cannot be passed on to his offspring, resulting in women being able to pass on their mitochondrial DNA from generation to generation.

Of course, males can also trace their female ancestors back to ancient times through the mitochondrial DNA in their bodies, just not to their paternal ancestors.

However, the Y chromosome in males can help to trace the paternal ancestors in ancient times.

We know that there are 23 pairs of chromosomes in the human body, of which the 23rd pair is the sex chromosome, XX for females and XY for males, of which 95% of the Y chromosome does not recombine except for the top 5% (if it is difficult to understand, think of the Y chromosome as a barcode, the barcode of the non-recombining region of the Y chromosome does not Instead, they faithfully carry out the command: the master passes to the father and the father passes to the son, passing the Y chromosome on unless a genetic mutation occurs, although the probability of a genetic mutation occurring is very low and scientists can trace the kinship of each other through these mutation sites.

Since the Y chromosome exists only in males, it is possible to trace the paternal ancestry of males through the Y chromosome. Through research, Chuanchao Wang of Fudan University found that half of the male Y chromosome types in representative males in China and East Asia can be grouped under these three Y chromosomes, and these three chromosome types, in turn, can each be traced to one male individual, so there are a total of three male ancestors, and these three male ancestors lived between about 5000~7000 years ago.

Another thing to say is that these 3 males may not have lived in the same period, they may have appeared in different times and spaces, in different locations.

How can 3 men produce 50% of today's males?

Let's start by saying that it's not that these 3 men were very powerful, dominating multiple women and then leaving behind numerous male offspring. Rather, they were more fortunate in that the male members of their families were never interrupted and passed down from generation to generation to the present day, along with the population reproduction, eventually making half of the men in our country come from these 3 men.

Some men are more unlucky, although they are stronger themselves, through force or rich property married multiple wives, but also left many male offspring, but his male offspring in the process of inheritance are not born sons and lead to Y chromosome interruption so that their Y chromosome also disappeared.

Y chromosome Adam

Since it is possible to trace the ancient ancestors of males through the type of Y chromosome, is it possible to trace the common ancestor of all males in the world through the Y chromosome?

It's possible, and it's something scientists have already done.

Scientists extracted the Y chromosome from some men in various regions of the world, and by studying the chance of mutation of the Y chromosome, as well as the degree of similarity, found that all men on earth today share a common ancestor, scientists will be explicit "Y chromosome Adam".

By analyzing the Y chromosome Adam found that he lived in Africa 60,000 years ago, and this also gives a very solid basis for the theory that humans are of African origin.

Similarly, through mitochondrial DNA, scientists have traced the most recent common ancestor of all present-day women, named "Mitochondrial Eve", who lived in Africa 140,000 years ago.

It should be noted here that Y-chromosome Adam and mitochondrial Eve are not the first man and woman in the world, there were also many human beings in the same period of their lives, but their descendants did not pass on to the present for various reasons so that they became the most recent common ancestor of all human beings around the world.

Summing up

Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA can not only help us to trace who our ancestors are but also help scientists to study the origin of human beings and how they migrated out of Africa, providing indisputable evidence for anthropology, paleoanthropology, and other disciplines.

In addition, the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA can also track criminals, for example, the si, ver case was solved because the distant cousin of the suspect in the silver case was imprisoned for paying bribes, and his Y chromosome was highly similar to the suspect in the silver case, so the police investigated the family man and finally caught the real killer.