DENVER, May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two scientists who pioneered research on the X and Y chromosomes have been chosen to receive the 2011 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology.

Contrary to a widely held scientific theory that the mammalian Y chromosome is slowly decaying or stagnating, new evidence suggests that in fact the Y is actually evolving quite rapidly through continuous, wholesale renovation.

The unique mechanism behind the evolutionary survival of the human Y chromosome may also be responsible for a range of sex disorders, from failed sperm production to sex reversal to Turner Syndrome.