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Updated: Apr 20, 2026

Manipulation of Ploidy in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: March 15, 2018
Differential spatial and structural organization of the X chromosome underlies dosage compensation in C. elegans
Rahul Sharma1, Daniel Jost2, Jop Kind3
1Cell Fate and Nuclear Organization, Institute of Cell Biology, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland; Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland;
Abstract:
The adjustment of X-linked gene expression to the X chromosome copy number (dosage compensation [DC]) has been widely studied as a model of chromosome-wide gene regulation. In Caenorhabditis elegans, DC is achieved by twofold down-regulation of gene expression from both Xs in hermaphrodites. We show that in males, the single X chromosome interacts with nuclear pore proteins, while in hermaphrodites, the DC complex (DCC) impairs this interaction and alters X localization. Our results put forward a structural model of DC in which X-specific sequences locate the X chromosome in transcriptionally active domains in males, while the DCC prevents this in hermaphrodites.
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