X chromosome: How genetics becomes egalitarian
Wednesday, December 19, 2018 - 11:40
in Health & Medicine
In cell biology, men and women are unequal: men have an X chromosome, while women have two. How can we get around this difference? Geneticists observed how the second X chromosome in females gradually becomes inactive in order to avoid an overdose of genes encoded by the X. They also found that several genes bypassed this inactivation, which varied according to the tissue and life phases of the cell.