摘要
In mammals, dosage compensation between the sexes involves the transcriptional silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in female cells. Thereby, either the paternally or maternally inherited X chromosome becomes inactivated in a random manner. X inactivation is initiated in early embryogenesis. The X inactivation centre （Xic） regulates the initiation of X inactivation in a developmentally controlled process during early embryogenesis and contains elements that signal the presence of an X chromosome. The Xic also contains the non-coding Xist RNA, which localizes in cis over the X chromosome and triggers chromosome-wide gene silencing. The present view is that the mechanisms that control X inactivation converge at the regulation of Xist.
作者简介
Correspondence： Anton Wutz Tel： ＋43-1-79730/3430; Fax： ＋43-1-7987153 E-mail： wutz@imp.univie.ac.at
