Faced with inequality: chicken do not have a general dosage compensation of sex-linked genes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The contrasting dose of sex chromosomes in males and females potentially introduces a large-scale imbalance in levels of gene expression between sexes, and between sex chromosomes and autosomes. In many organisms, dosage compensation has thus evolved to equalize sex-linked gene expression in males and females. In mammals this is achieved by X chromosome inactivation and in flies and worms by up- or down-regulation of X-linked expression, respectively. While otherwise widespread in systems with heteromorphic sex chromosomes, the case of dosage compensation in birds (males ZZ, females ZW) remains an unsolved enigma.

Results

Here, we use a microarray approach to show that male chicken embryos generally express higher levels of Z-linked genes than female birds, both i

SUBMITTER: Ellegren H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2099419 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature