> LA MALÉDICTION D’ADAM, de Bryan Sykes - Éd. Robert Laffont. — Menée de main de maître par un grand généticien britannique qui a le talent d’un romancier, ce livre a des chances de vous couper le souffle. Bryan Sykes s’était fait remarquer pour sa première enquête, "Les 7 filles d’Eve", qui montrait qu’en analysant l’ADN des mitochondries (qui ne viennent que de nos mères), on prouvait que tous les humains actuels descendent de sept femmes, elles-mêmes descendantes d’une seule Africaine d’il y a 200 000 ans. Une étude comparable a été menée en analysant un fragment de l’ADN du chromosome Y (qui caractérise les mâles et ne peut venir que des pères).
Résultat : une autre arborescence remontant aussi en Afrique. Mais beaucoup plus récente : moins de 50 000 ans. Pourquoi ? Plongez dans le livre de Sykes, pour découvrir l’hallucinante réalité. Dans une sorte de guerre sans pitié entre les mitochondries femelles et les chromosomes Y mâles, ces derniers ont soudain profité de la “civilisation” (à partir de l’agriculture), pour répandre leurs gènes suivant une méthode propre : massacre, propriété, richesse, pouvoir, viol. Des siècles après, on découvre que les gènes des grands tyrans (par exemple Gengis Khan) ont des millions de descendants. 95% des gènes Y des Sud-Américains actuels viennent des conquérants européens. Mais voilà, le mâle a conduit la biosphère dans une impasse telle que les gènes femelles (tout aussi égoïstes, mais beaucoup plus calmes) ont entamé une énorme contre-attaque : la “force” du sperme est en chute libre. D’ici cinq siècles, dit Sykes, les mâles auront quitté le pouvoir. Dans cinq milllénaires, ils auront disparu. Fascinant d’érudition - et débordant d’humour. (Patrice van EERSEL)
—Nouvelles Clés

Fascinating look at male genetics. It raises as many questions as it answers and was good reading. ( )

Sykes has lost me in the first chapter.

Yes, it's pretty impressive that so many men named Sykes have the same Y chromosone. But to say that therefore 99% of the wives had no other sexual contact is a false assumption. There can have been sex without a child resulting. (There have always been ways of reducing the chances of pregnancy.) The resulting child could have been female or not have survived. A second or third son has usually been less likely to have been able to afford a family of his own or have gone to the military ... and a woman was probably fairly careful that the heir was really the son of her husband. Or of course, the most accessable men would have been her brothers-in-law and other male relatives of her husband. These sons would all carry that same Y.

In general the pattern has held throughout the book. There is a lot of interesting information in here, but I find many of his arguments faulty. As to his final worry - (spoiler) - if it takes another 7,500 generations for men to die off, I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

I read this book in German. It was fairly smooth, and the faults I found with the book are not ones that involve translation. ( )

Having read Sykes "Seven Daughters...." first, I found this book just as easy to understand, but not quite as engrossing. Maybe because I'm female? ( )

Sykes has done it again with this follow-up of his "Seven Daughters of Eve." "Adam's Curse" is a terrific survey of the latest findings on human genetics as told through the Y chromosome, inherited exclusively through one's father. There are plenty of new ideas here, coupled with a rather informative short course on the twentieth century's additions to Darwin's theory of evolution.
This is not a dry recitation of the facts, by any means. It contains his personal story of unraveling some of these puzzles himself, told in an a lively and amusing manner, sure to hold the reader's interest. There are history lessons, such as the one about the lamentable foul-ups of the microscopists trying to count the chromosomes. And Sykes tale of observing his own Y chromosome, carrying out the manipulations with his own hands, is described in some detail. There are stories about his coworkers, including the giant William Hamilton, who probably is second only to Darwin in developing the theory of evolution. But mostly it is the story of the application of modern genetics to the varied populations of the world, the story of their migrations and conquests, and the struggle of the Y chromosome to survive.

Sykes' distinct approach is to apply some relatively simple molecular probes to Y chromosomes obtained from many individuals in a variety of populations on a fairly big scale, rather than the other important task, carried on by a myriad of scientists, of trying to understand all the biological minutiae of a single prototypical human.

His finding the Y chromosome inherited today by about 500,000 descendants of the founder of the MacDonald, MacDougalls and the MacAlisters Clans is quite fun to read, and the similar tale of his discovering the Sykes clan reveals something about how curiosity driven science can be so deeply satisfying. The stories of the Vikings, the Polynesians, the Great Khan, and conquest by the Spaniards in South America are all covered here and the new insights revealed by their Y chromosomes gives a tantalizing glimpse of those still to come from other parts of the world. I can't wait.

Probably most unusual for a book of this sort, is that Sykes, a distinguished scientist, lays on some pretty far out, half-baked, probably wrong, but testable ideas about such things as the origin of homosexuality, the war between the sexes from the perspective of the Y and mitochondrial chromosomes, and even the possible future course of the evolution of the Y to its ultimate demise. This is a refreshing contrast to the plodding certainties of the refereed publications of the academics, hedged about with all the required caveats and cautions. In spite of his sometimes over-anthropomorphized chromosomes, this is an entertaining read, rewarding to readers yearning to understand the human beast. ( )