Measuring satellite arrays of the human Y chromosome from sequencing reads

Abstract

Human Y chromosome satellites vary widely but remain difficult to measure in large cohorts. In response, we developed Yruler, which uses pangenome assemblies to measure satellite lengths, composition and Y dosage from sequencing reads without alignment. Analyses reveal centromere-length differences between related lineages, extend observations of short non-centromeric arrays across a lineage, and show unequal component variability and composition changes with heterochromatin length within lineages. Yruler brings satellite variation into population-scale phenotype studies.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@misc{ortigasvasquez2026measuring,
  title = {{Measuring satellite arrays of the human Y chromosome from sequencing reads}},
  author = {A. Ortigas-Vasquez and A. Guarracino},
  howpublished = {bioRxiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.64898/2026.11.04.764422},
  url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.04.764422v1},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}

RIS

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Measuring satellite arrays of the human Y chromosome from sequencing reads
AU  - A. Ortigas-Vasquez
AU  - A. Guarracino
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/04
PB  - bioRxiv
DO  - 10.64898/2026.11.04.764422
UR  - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.11.04.764422v1
AB  - Human Y chromosome satellites vary widely but remain difficult to measure in large cohorts. In response, we developed Yruler, which uses pangenome assemblies to measure satellite lengths, composition and Y dosage from sequencing reads without alignment. Analyses reveal centromere-length differences between related lineages, extend observations of short non-centromeric arrays across a lineage, and show unequal component variability and composition changes with heterochromatin length within lineages. Yruler brings satellite variation into population-scale phenotype studies.
ER  -

Abstract

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