Journal
SEMINARS IN REPRODUCTIVE MEDICINE
Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 183-191Publisher
THIEME MEDICAL PUBL INC
DOI: 10.1055/s-2001-15398
Keywords
X-linked disorders; X inactivation; skewed
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X chromosome inactivation is a process by which the dosage of proteins transcribed from genes on the X chromosome is equalized between males (XY) and females (XX) through the silencing of most genes on one of the two X chromosomes in fe males. Although the choice of which of the two X's is inactivated is entirely random, not all women have a 50:50 ratio of cells with one or the other X chromosomes active. A number of different mechanisms lead to extremely skewed ratios and this can result in expression of the phenotype of X-linked recessive disorders in females. Nonrandom X inactivation patterns are also associated with selective female survival in male-lethal X-linked dominant disorders or with variable severity of the phenotype in women carrying X-linked dominant mutations. These features are important for the study and gene identification of X-linked disorders and for counseling of affected families.
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