An MLL/COMPASS subunit functions in the C. elegans dosage compensation complex to target X chromosomes for transcriptional regulation of gene expression.

ABSTRACT: Here we analyze the essential process of X-chromosome dosage compensation (DC) to elucidate mechanisms that control the assembly, genome-wide binding, and function of gene regulatory complexes that act over large chromosomal territories. We demonstrate that a subunit of Caenorhabditis elegans MLL/COMPASS, a gene activation complex, acts within the DC complex (DCC), a condensin complex, to target the DCC to both X chromosomes of hermaphrodites for chromosome-wide reduction of gene expression. The DCC binds to two categories of sites on X: rex (recruitment element on X) sites that recruit the DCC in an autonomous, sequence-dependent manner, and dox (dependent on X) sites that reside primarily in promoters of expressed genes and bind the DCC robustly only when attached to X. We find that DC m

SUBMITTER: Pferdehirt RR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3049290 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature