Dosage compensation leads to a variety of interesting coat color patterns in certain mammals. For ...

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.