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

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 tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of molecular evolution 2016-05, Vol.82 (4-5), p.199-206
Main Authors: Gallach, Miguel, Betrán, Esther
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Genetics and Genomics
Animals
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cell Biology
Chromosomes
Dosage Compensation, Genetic - genetics
Drosophila
Drosophila - genetics
Evolutionary Biology
Female
Gene Expression
Gene Expression Regulation - genetics
Genes, Insect
Genes, X-Linked - genetics
Life Sciences
Male
Males
Microbiology
Original
Original Article
Plant Genetics and Genomics
Plant Sciences
Sex Chromosomes
Sex Factors
Studies
X Chromosome
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Summary: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.
ISSN:0022-2844
1432-1432
DOI:10.1007/s00239-016-9735-y