Sex and death: from cell fate specification to dynamic control of X-chromosome structure and gene expression

Determining sex is a binary developmental decision that most metazoans must make. Like many organisms, Caenorhabditis elegans specifies sex (XO male or XX hermaphrodite) by tallying X-chromosome number. We dissected this precise counting mechanism to determine how tiny differences in concentrations of signals are translated into dramatically different developmental fates. Determining sex by counting chromosomes solved one problem but created another-an imbalance in X gene products. We found that nematodes compensate for the difference in X-chromosome dose between sexes by reducing transcription from both hermaphrodite X chromosomes. In a surprising feat of evolution, X-chromosome regulation is functionally related to a structural problem of all mitotic and meiotic chromosomes: achieving ordered compaction of chromosomes before segregation. We showed the dosage compensation complex is a condensin complex that imposes a specific three--dimensional architecture onto hermaphrodite X chromosomes. It also triggers enrichment of histone modification H4K20me1. We discovered the machinery and mechanism underlying H4K20me1 enrichment and demonstrated its pivotal role in regulating higher-order X-chromosome structure and gene expression.