Zhang Yu, Oliver Brian
Laboratory of Cellular and Developmental Biology, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2007 Apr;17(2):113-20. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2007.02.002. Epub 2007 Feb 20.
In many organisms, females have two X chromosomes whereas males have just one. This natural X chromosome monosomy is not lethal, because of dosage compensation. Although numerous elegant genetic, biochemical and cytological experiments have been used to build up the mechanistic framework describing this specialized transcriptional control, dosage compensation is a chromosome-wide regulatory mechanism and is best studied at that level. Microarray techniques give us the chance to look simultaneously at the expression of all the genes in response to dose. These approaches have resolved old controversies, suggested new questions, and promise to give us a more clear and comprehensive understanding of an old problem in molecular and cell biology.
在许多生物体中，雌性有两条X染色体，而雄性只有一条。由于剂量补偿，这种天然的X染色体单体并不致命。尽管已经进行了大量精妙的遗传学、生物化学和细胞学实验来构建描述这种特殊转录调控的机制框架，但剂量补偿是一种全染色体范围的调控机制，在该水平上进行研究最为合适。微阵列技术使我们有机会同时观察所有基因对剂量变化的表达情况。这些方法解决了旧有的争议，提出了新的问题，并有望让我们对分子和细胞生物学中的一个老问题有更清晰、更全面的理解。
