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Title: Dosage compensation leads to a variety of interesting coat color patterns in cer Post by: colleen on Sep 11, 2013 Dosage compensation leads to a variety of interesting coat color patterns in certain mammals. For instance, a female cat that is heterozygous for two coat color alleles, say black and orange, will usually have the "calico" or mosaic phenotype. Describe the chromosomal basis for the mosaicism (calico) in the female. Explain why chromosomally normal male cats do not show the mosaic phenotype, but XXY male cats can be calico.
Title: Re: Dosage compensation leads to a variety of interesting coat color patterns in cer Post by: savio on Sep 28, 2013 Because of dosage compensation, one of the X chromosomes randomly "turns off" early in development. Once such a chromosome is inactivated, it remains so in daughter cells. Recessive alleles on the remaining active X chromosome are expressed because their normal allele (on the inactive X chromosome) is not capable of expression. Because males typically have only one X chromosome, X chromosome inactivation does not occur; however, in XXY males that are heterozygous for certain coat color genes, such inactivation and mosaicism are possible.
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