Why Women Are Stripey

An explanation of epigenetics and X-chromosome inactivation, showing how female mammals are genetic mosaics with different active X chromosomes in different cells.

Epigenetics means women have different active x-chromosomes in different cells. Animation courtesy of wehi.tv Music by Amarante: bit.ly/VeAmarante Animation: Etsuko Uno Art and Technical Direction: Drew Berry Sound Design: Francois Tetaz & Emma Bortignon Scientific Consultation: Marnie Blewitt Courtesy of Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research: wehi.tv 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. Through a tiny molecular battle within each cell, one of the x-chromosomes wins and remains active while the loser is deactivated. 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. 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, some from Mom and some from Dad.