Why is X inactivation necessary?

Answer 1

As nearly all female mammals have two X chromosomes , X inactivation prevents them from having twice as many X chromosome gene products as males.

Because the inactive X chromosome is arranged to have heterochromatin, a transcriptionally inactive structure, it is silenced.

Cellular inactivation leads to a mosaic expression, where some cells have an inactive paternal chromosome and other cells have an inactive maternal X chromosome.

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Answer 2

Nicholas Ahn

X inactivation is necessary to balance gene expression between males (XY) and females (XX) by compensating for the double dose of X-linked genes in females. Without X inactivation, females would produce twice as much X-linked gene products as males, leading to potential genetic imbalance and developmental abnormalities.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.