REVIEW

Implications of the gene balance hypothesis for dosage compensation

  • James A. BIRCHLER ,
  • Lin SUN ,
  • Ryan DONOHUE ,
  • Abhijit SANYAL ,
  • Weiwu XIE
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  • Division of Biological Sciences University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA

Received date: 29 Nov 2010

Accepted date: 21 Feb 2011

Published date: 01 Apr 2011

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

Dosage compensation refers to the equal expression between the sexes despite the fact that the dosage of the X chromosome is different in males and females. In BoldItalic there is a twofold upregulation of the single male X. In triple X metafemales, there is also dosage compensation, which occurs by a two-thirds downregulation. There is a concomitant reduction in expression of many autosomal genes in metafemales. The male specific lethal (MSL) complex is present on the male X chromosome. Evidence is discussed showing that the MSL complex sequesters a histone acetyltransferase to the X chromosome to mute an otherwise increased expression by diminishing the histone acetylation on the autosomes. Several lines of evidence indicate that a constraining activity occurs from the MSL complex to prevent overcompensation on the X that might otherwise occur from the high level of acetylation present. Together, the evidence suggests that dosage compensation is a modification of a regulatory inverse dosage effect that is a reflection of intrinsic gene regulatory mechanisms and that the MSL complex has evolved in reaction in order to equalize the expression on both the X and autosomes of males and females.

Cite this article

James A. BIRCHLER , Lin SUN , Ryan DONOHUE , Abhijit SANYAL , Weiwu XIE . Implications of the gene balance hypothesis for dosage compensation[J]. Frontiers in Biology, 2011 , 6(2) : 118 -124 . DOI: 10.1007/s11515-011-1121-y

Acknowledgement

Research supported by National Institutes of Health grant RO1GM068042-05.
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