Sex Differences in Drosophila melanogaster Heterochromatin Are Regulated by Non-Sex Specific Factors.

ABSTRACT: The eukaryotic genome is assembled into distinct types of chromatin. Gene-rich euchromatin has active chromatin marks, while heterochromatin is gene-poor and enriched for silencing marks. In spite of this, genes native to heterochromatic regions are dependent on their normal environment for full expression. Expression of genes in autosomal heterochromatin is reduced in male flies mutated for the noncoding roX RNAs, but not in females. roX mutations also disrupt silencing of reporter genes in male, but not female, heterochromatin, revealing a sex difference in heterochromatin. We adopted a genetic approach to determine how this difference is regulated, and found no evidence that known X chromosome counting elements, or the sex determination pathway that these control, are involved. This sug

SUBMITTER: Apte MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4459879 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature