Dosage Compensation and the Distribution of Sex-Biased Gene Expression in Drosophila: Considerations and Genomic Constraints

Dosage Compensation and the Distribution of Sex-Biased Gene Expression in Drosophila: Considerations and Genomic Constraints

Abstract

Several studies in Drosophila have shown a paucity of male-biased genes (i.e., genes that express higher in males than in females) on the X chromosome. Dosage compensation (DC) is a regulatory mechanism of gene expression triggered in males that hypertranscribes the X-linked genes to the level of transcription in females. There are currently two different hypotheses about the effects of DC on the distribution of male-biased genes: (1) it might limit male-expression level, or (2) it might interfere with the male upregulation of gene expression. Here, we used previously published gene expression datasets to reevaluate both hypotheses and introduce a mutually exclusive prediction that helped us to reject the hypothesis that the paucity of male-biased genes in the X chromosome is due to a limit in the male-expression level. Our analysis also uncovers unanticipated details about how DC interferes with the genomic distribution of both, male-biased and female-biased genes. We suggest that DC actually interferes with female downregulation of gene expression and not male upregulation, as previously suggested.

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Authors
  • Gallach, Miguel
  • Betrán, Esther
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Shortfacts
Category
Journal Paper
Divisions
Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Journal or Publication Title
Journal of Molecular Evolution
ISSN
0022-2844
Publisher
Springer US
Place of Publication
Cham, Switzerland
Page Range
pp. 199-206
Number
4-5
Volume
82
Date
May 2016
Official URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00239-016-9735-y
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