Measuring satellite arrays of the human Y chromosome from sequencing reads

Yruler measures human Y chromosome satellite lengths, composition, and Y dosage from sequencing reads without alignment, enabling population-scale quantification despite wide satellite variation.

• Why it matters: Satellite arrays on the human Y chromosome are highly variable and hard to measure consistently in large cohorts, limiting their use in population phenotype studies.
• What they did: Yruler uses pangenome assemblies to infer satellite features directly from sequencing reads without alignment, then analyzes lineage-specific patterns including centromere-length differences and within-lineage heterochromatin effects.
• The result: The approach reveals centromere-length differences between related lineages, extends tracking of short non-centromeric arrays across a lineage, and links component variability and composition changes to heterochromatin length within lineages.

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