Diverse Genome Topologies Characterize Dosage Compensation across Species

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: William Jordan III, Brown University; Leila Rieder, Emory University; Erica Larschan, Brown University
• Language: English
• Date: 2019-04-01
• Publisher: Elsevier Science Ltd.
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2019 Elsevier Ltd.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tig.2019.02.001
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Trends in Genetics
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 308
• End Page: 315
• Grant/Funding Information: None declared
• Keywords: Dosage Compensation, Genetic; Genome; Animals; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Chromosomes; Genetic Variation; Chromatin; Epigenesis, Genetic; Humans; Genomics; Sequence Analysis, DNA
• Research Categories: Chemistry, Biochemistry; Biology, Genetics; Biology, Molecular; Biology, Cell

Abstract

Dosage compensation is the process by which transcript levels of the X chromosome are equalized with those of autosomes. Although diverse mechanisms of dosage compensation have evolved across species, these mechanisms all involve distinguishing the X chromosome from autosomes. Because one chromosome is singled out from other chromosomes for precise regulation, dosage compensation serves as an important model for understanding how specific cis-elements are identified within the highly compacted 3D genome to co-regulate thousands of genes. Recently, multiple genomic approaches have provided key insights into the mechanisms of dosage compensation, extending what we have learned from classical genetic studies. In the future, newer genomic approaches that require little starting material show great promise to provide an understanding of the heterogeneity of dosage compensation between cells and how it functions in nonmodel organisms.