Chromosomes

Researchers looking for a simple way to determine the sex of papayas have discovered that the plant has a primitive Y chromosome that scientists believe is similar to the human Y chromosome before hundreds of millions of years of evolution. The Y chromosome confers maleness on its bearer. The discovery was expected to be very valuable to papaya growers, but should also shed light on how the Y chromosome developed and achieved its unusually small size.

Scientists have moved a significant step closer to confirming a link between a deadly form of leukemia and two specific genes, a finding that may enhance understanding of the critical role genes play in cancer development. In a series of studies by an international team of researchers, investigations conclude that two insidious oncogenes, cancer-causing genes, are associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a form of the disease that primarily strikes children and young adults.

Vice President George Bush has apologized to a mother of a girl with Down's syndrome for his use of the phrase "the extra-chromosome set" to refer to conservatives who oppose the recently signed arms-control treaty, a newspaper reported Thursday. The phrase had drawn fire from Kathleen Mulligan of Methuen, Mass., and other parents of children with Down's syndrome, a condition involving mental and physical handicaps caused by an extra chromosome.

In a search for their ancestors, more than 140 people with variations of the last name Kincaid have taken DNA tests and shared their results on the Internet. They have found war heroes, sailors and survivors of the Irish potato famine. They have also stumbled upon bastards, liars and two-timers. Much of it is ancient history, long-dead ancestors whose dalliances are part of the intrigue of amateur genealogy. But sometimes the findings strike closer to home.

Genetics researchers have found new evidence that may explain why some babies born with female chromosomes become male anyway. Normally, babies who inherit an X and a Y chromosome become male and those with two X chromosomes become female. But about one in every 20,000 male babies has two X chromosomes. "They are male in every sense of the word, but they are sterile," said David C.

An emerging technique called chromosome mapping could lead to the deciphering of the human genetic code, and such information could help researchers understand and perhaps develop new treatments for many hereditary diseases. "We're learning things already that we couldn't have anticipated," Charles Cantor of Columbia University in New York said last week at the annual meeting of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.

A team headquartered at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Research Institute has narrowed the search for a gene causing the mysterious autoimmune disease lupus to a small region of the vast human genome. The finding should lead to better understanding of the causes of the disorder and eventually, to new treatments. Lupus affects as many as 2 million Americans, according to the Lupus Foundation of America.

Just as Your Legislature at Work has decided to continue a program permitting intersection cameras to catch red light runners. . . . . . . . comes a study from the Department of Health in San Francisco, where red light cameras are effective, but so expensive the city's installed fakes at some intersections. The cameras--real or faux--may make drivers mind their Ps and Qs, but the study found that much of the bad conduct comes down to Xs and Ys, as in chromosomes.

While Pat Broudy of Laguna Niguel was in Washington two weeks ago lobbying U.S. congressmen and senators for passage of a bill to compensate military radiation victims, she made her first visit to the Vietnam War Memorial. Workers were carving some new names in the stone, and Broudy watched transfixed while individuals and whole families came, paid silent tribute for a few minutes and left.

Mike Binder has his fellow men figured out. They are pigs. Babies. Y-chromosome amnesiacs unconcerned with putting the toilet seat down. Men are lost souls in relationships as they mess up what they have in the pursuit of more. They are fragile heroes with raging ids propelled by fantasies and Viagra. How could anybody fail to feel men's pain? Or, anyway, laugh ruefully at it? Behold "The Mind of the Married Man," Binder's brash new comedy premiering Sunday at 10 p.m.on HBO. Yo, men! Gotcha!