According to the recent findings by a research team led by Jennifer Hughes and David Page of the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass., the Y chromosome – a sex chromosome present only in males, and once sneered for being small, short of genes, and full of “junk DNA” - is fast turning into a powerhouse of evolution.

The new study, reported online in the January 13 issue of the journal Nature, says that the Y chromosome – which carries that male-determining gene - is overturning the traditional ideas about its evolutionary history, by not only being the fastest-changing component of the human genome, but also by continuously renewing itself.

The research team said that while most of the human DNA has largely been the same since human ancestors became independent from those of the chimpanzees, the Y chromosome has ever since changed almost one-half of its genes in an evolutionary pursuit to yield better sperm cells.

Noting that having a Y is like residing in a house that is always under renovation, with high-speed work forever underway, lead researcher Hughes said: “The Y is actually reinventing itself through continuous, wholesale renovation.”

Meanwhile, Page added that though Y continuous renewal does not imply that men are evolving faster than women, it needs to be assessed how Y’s rate of change may influence the evolution of the rest of the human genome.