title: Dosage compensation and nuclear organization: cluster to control chromosome-wide gene expression.
abstract: In many species, male and female animals differ in the number of X chromosomes they possess. As a consequence, large scale differences in gene dosage exist between sexes; a phenomenon that is rarely tolerated by the organism for changes in autosome dosage. Several strategies have evolved independently to balance X-linked gene dosage between sexes, named dosage compensation (DC). The molecular basis of DC differs among the three best-studied examples: mammals, fruit fly and nematodes. In this short review, we summarize recent microscopic and chromosome conformation capture data that reveal key features of the compensated X chromosome and highlight the events leading to the establishment of a functional, specialized nuclear compartment, the X domain.
authors.affiliation: Cell Fate and Nuclear Organization, Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Switzerland; Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Cell Fate and Nuclear Organization, Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: peter.meister@izb.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Meister
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000235:genetics; D004303:Dosage Compensation, Genetic; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D012730:Sex Chromosomes / Q000235:genetics; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000235:genetics*; D049951:X Chromosome Inactivation / Q000235:genetics*