Doubling the Dose 英文参考文献.docVIP

Synopsis DoublingtheDose WilliamMair* FreelanceScienceWriter,LaJolla,California,UnitedStatesofAmerica Maintaining the correct dosage of development, the embryo’s genes are not yetactiveandtheembryoreliesonmRNA inherited from its mother in the egg to make proteins. After approximately ten cell divisions, the maternally inherited mRNAsbegintodegradeandtheembry- o’s own genome kicks in. There is a lag time, however, between the activation of embryonic genes and when the MSL dosage compensation complex is turned on. To test if dosage compensation of embryonicgeneswasoccurringduringthis lag period, thescientists needed to distin- guish the maternally inherited mRNAs from those expressed from the embryo’s own DNA. They did this by studying offspring of parents from two genetically distinct populations, whose genomes they had first sequenced to identify DNA markers unique to each parent. Armed withtheseuniquetags,thescientistscould thendetermineifgenesswitchedoninthe embryos were maternal or embryonic, since maternal mRNA would have mar- kers exclusively from the mother, while embryonic genes would contain a mix of bothparentalmarkers.Lottandcolleagues adapted current sequencing methods to allowfortheverylowamountsofstarting material available so that they could record all the genes that were active in a single fly embryo, and then categorize themaseithermaternalorembryonic. When the researchers compared the expression levels of genes between male and female embryosduring development, whattheysawwasstriking—althoughthe majority of genes were expressed at the samelevelsinmalesandfemales,geneson the X chromosome were much more active on the male X chromosome than eitherofthetwofemaleXchromosomes. Moreover, X genes with key roles in developmental showed up-regulation that resulted in perfect dosage compensation, even though males had half the dose of chromosomes is crucial for a cell to functionproperly.Insexuallyreproducing organisms most chromosomes exist in pair