New genetic research at Huntsville's HudsonAlpha Center for Biotechnology suggests that having a Y-chromosome may be bad for you. Researchers say the chromosome that makes a person male may also be a health risk.

"It has long been thought that Chromosome-Y found in males is critical for male sex development, but then does very little for other biological functions," HudsonAlpha researcher Dr. Jeremy Prokop said Thursday in an announcement of the study. "In this work we show that Chromosome-Y impacts a broad range of genetic regions. Changes to those regions could contribute to disease development such as hypertension."

Researchers identified a region on a rat's Y chromosome linked to high blood pressure. Human genomes have that same region, and now researchers will investigate whether those genes are also linked to human cardiovascular disease.

"For years it has been known that differences between females and males are due to hormones and genes on the X and Y chromosomes," said researcher Dr. Howard Jacob. "However, very little is still known about how genetics contribute to the biological difference. This work shows the broad roles the sex chromosomes - particularly the Y-chromosome in males - play in biology outside of sex determination."

The research was published Feb. 3 in the online journal Biology of Sex Differences. Other researchers in the project are at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, the University of Akron, Walsh University and Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.