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| — | blog:bpaddock:epigenetics_why_women_are_stripey [2014/07/13 15:59] (current) – Created Epigenetics: Why Women Are Stripey bpaddock | ||
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| + | ====== Epigenetics Why Women Are Stripey ====== | ||
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| + | Epigenetics means women have different active x-chromosomes in different cells. | ||
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| + | When a female embryo is four days old it consists of just 100 cells. At this point the x-chromosome from Mom and the one from Dad are both active. But in order for proper development to occur, one of the x chromosomes must be switched off. | ||
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| + | Through a tiny molecular battle within each cell, one of the x-chromosomes wins and remains active while the loser is deactivated. | ||
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| + | This is done by wrapping the DNA tighter around proteins, modifying histone tails, and DNA methylation - molecular markers to indicate this DNA should not be read. | ||
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| + | What's surprising is that it's pretty random which x chromosome wins - sometimes it's Mom's and sometimes it's Dad's. So when a female is just 100 cells big, her cells have a mix of active x-chromosomes, | ||
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| + | ~~DISCUSSION~~ | ||