Abstract
Despite the important progress that has been made on dosage compensation (DC), a critical link in our understanding of the X chromosome recognition mechanisms is still missing. Recent studies in Drosophila indicate that the missing link could be a family of DNA repeats populating the euchromatin of the X chromosome. In this opinion article, I discuss how these findings add a new fresh twist on the DC problem. In the following sections, I first summarize our understanding of DC in Drosophila and integrate these recent discoveries into our knowledge of the X chromosome recognition problem. Next, I introduce a model according to which, 1.688g/cm(3) satellite-related (SR) repeats would be the primary recognition elements for the dosage compensation complex. Contrary to the current belief, I suggest that the DC system in Drosophila is not conserved and static, but it is continuously co-evolving with the target SR repeats. The potential role of the SR repeats in hybrid incompatibilities and speciation is also discussed.
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