Researchers show how RNA molecules and proteins activate the X chromosome

X chromosomes are special, even for genetic material. They differ in number between men and women and to achieve equality between sexes, one out of two X chromosomes in women is silenced.

In Drosophila, the opposite happens: in male flies, the only available X chromosome is highly activated, to compensate for the absence of the second X-chromosome.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI-IE) in Freiburg haveshown how the RNA molecules and proteins involved in the activation find and stick to each other. Similar to the way a monkey that grabs a liana with hands and feet, one of the proteins holds on to the RNA, then it molds the molecular liana with its hands and generates a dynamic RNA – protein meeting place.

Read the full article here: Molecular Monkey Sometimes Throws A Wrench Into X-chromosome Activation

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