Abnormal X: autosome ratio, but normal X chromosome inactivation in human triploid cultures.

ABSTRACT:

Background

X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is that aspect of mammalian dosage compensation that brings about equivalence of X-linked gene expression between females and males by inactivating one of the two X chromosomes (Xi) in normal female cells, leaving them with a single active X (Xa) as in male cells. In cells with more than two X's, but a diploid autosomal complement, all X's but one, Xa, are inactivated. This phenomenon is commonly thought to suggest 1) that normal development requires a ratio of one Xa per diploid autosomal set, and 2) that an early event in XCI is the marking of one X to be active, with remaining X's becoming inactivated by default.

Results

Triploids provide a test of these ideas because the ratio of one Xa per diploid autosomal set cannot be achiev

SUBMITTER: Gartler SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1526452 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature