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Selfish DNA such as transposable elements cause intragenomic conflict. This study finds that on an evolutionarily young, gene-rich Drosophila Y chromosome, transposable elements evade heterochromatic suppression, leading to elevated transposition rates in males.

While X-chromosome gene content tends to be conserved, Y-chromosome evolution is dynamic and difficult to reconstruct. Here, Mahajan and Bachtrog use a subtraction pipeline to identify Y-linked genes in 22 Diptera species, revealing patterns of Y-chromosome gene-content evolution.