【Publications】Dosage compensation of Z sex chromosome genes in avian fibroblast cells

September 25 2023

Lab: Guojun Sheng

Paper information

Title:

Dosage compensation of Z sex chromosome genes in avian fibroblast cells

Ruslan Deviatiiarov, Hiroki Nagai, Galym Ismagulov, Anastasia Stupina, Kazuhiro Wada, Shinji Ide, Noriyuki Toji, Heng Zhang, Woranop Sukparangsi, Sittipon Intarapat, Oleg Gusev and Guojun Sheng

Genome Biology   DOI: 10.1186/s13059-023-03055-z

Keywords

Birds, Sex chromosome, Dosage compensation, Sex determination, Fibroblast, CAGE (cap analysis of gene expression), TSS (transcription start site), CASI (cell autonomous sex identity), RPS6 (ribosomal protein S6)

Abstract

In birds, sex is genetically determined; however, the molecular mechanism is not well-understood. The avian Z sex chromosome (chrZ) lacks whole chromosome inactivation, in contrast to the mammalian chrX. To investigate chrZ dosage compensation and its role in sex specification, we use a highly quantitative method and analyze transcrip-tional activities of male and female fibroblast cells from seven bird species. Our data indicate that three fourths of chrZ genes are strictly compensated across Aves, similar to mammalian chrX. We also present a complete list of non-compensated chrZ genes and identify Ribosomal Protein S6 (RPS6) as a conserved sex-dimorphic gene in birds.

Graphical Abstract