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Lifting a chromosome: dosage compensation in Drosophila melanogaster
Author(s) -
Gilfillan Gregor D.,
Dahlsveen Ina K.,
Becker Peter B.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/j.febslet.2004.03.110
Subject(s) - dosage compensation , drosophila melanogaster , chromatin , biology , gene dosage , x chromosome , genetics , transcription (linguistics) , chromosome , gene , microbiology and biotechnology , gene expression , linguistics , philosophy
Twofold differences in gene expression levels can be vital for an organism. This is beautifully illustrated by the process of `dosage compensation' in Drosophila , which doubles transcription from the single male X chromosome to equal the mRNA levels originating from the two X chromosomes in female cells. Failure of the process leads to male‐specific lethality. A number of recent publications have furthered our understanding of the ribonucleoprotein complex, which mediates dosage compensation and how it targets the male X chromosome. Deciphering the principles of X chromosome recognition and the nature of the chromatin configuration, that allows fine‐tuning of transcription, remain the most interesting challenges.