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Developmental biology

The X-inactivation yo-yo

Nature volume 438, pages 297–298 (2005)Cite this article

In female mammals, one of two X chromosomes has to be shut down during early development. To what extent does this ‘imprinted X-chromosome inactivation’ involve the history of the chromosome?

In most mammals, males have the male sex-determining Y chromosome and a single X chromosome, whereas females have two X chromosomes. In females, the resulting imbalance in the ‘dosage’ of genes on the X chromosomes needs to be compensated so that gene expression from the X chromosome is equivalent in males and females. Mammals have evolved a unique form of dosage compensation, called X-chromosome inactivation, in which one of the two X chromosomes in female cells is silenced epigenetically1 — that is, by factors such as chemical modification of the DNA, or of the histone proteins that package DNA into chromosomes, often involving non-coding RNAs. Many aspects of mammalian X inactivation remain mysterious. But through elegant studies in the mouse, Okamoto and colleagues (page 369 of this issue)2 have unravelled some of the earliest events in the process.

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Figure 1: Imprinted X inactivation: on again, off again?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Laboratory of Developmental Genetics and Imprinting, The Babraham Institute, Cambridge, CB2 4AT, UK

    Wolf Reik

  2. the Department of Anatomy, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3DY, UK

    Anne C. Ferguson-Smith

Authors
  1. Wolf Reik
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  2. Anne C. Ferguson-Smith
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Reik, W., Ferguson-Smith, A. The X-inactivation yo-yo. Nature 438, 297–298 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/438297a

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