5 ms·
> the X chromosome has a mechanism to shut itself down (which makes sense; otherwise cells in women would have twice as many gene products from the X chromosome
by sheept 6mo ago
> the X chromosome has a mechanism to shut itself down (which makes sense; otherwise cells in women would have twice as many gene products from the X chromosome as cells from men).
You can see this visually because not the same X chromosome is deactivated in all cells: it's what gives calico cats their color (almost all of them are female).
- dreamcompiler 6mo agoHuman women have stripey skin too, but you can't see it under normal light because unlike cats, skin tone in humans is not controlled by the X chromosome. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6h-wDj7bw&t=225s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD6h-wDj7bw&t=225s
- rendaw 6mo agoThat video seems to imply you can't see it under any light and the image there is pure visualization.
- krige 6mo agoAFAIR this comes up visually when infected with certain diseases.
- shevy-java 6mo agoCan you link to a scientific article? I have severe doubts about that claim made on a random youtube video. In fact, I'd go as far as to claim that the content of the words here, are not correct. This is why I think a doi link to a research paper is necessary. I don't doubt that individual cells are, of course, chimeric, but I doubt the "stripey skin" claim. That one makes zero sense. I just did a google search and this further confirms my suspicion. Thus I would like to ask for a link to a scientific article - until that happens I remain rather unconvinced.
- markburns 6mo agohttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00273442 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00273442 I haven’t read it but I did find this
- dreamcompiler 6mo agoI agree about the need for verification, but Veritasium videos are usually well-researched and more accurate than "random" videos. Here's one link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0738081X10001641 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S07380...
- bonzini 6mo agoFor a more practical example, how does this work for the daughter of a colorblind person (the colorblindness gene is on the X chromosome)? Do they have four types of cones?
- mjg59 6mo agoYes, but it's not limited to that case - there's two common variants of the green cone that respond to different wavelengths and people with two X chromosomes can have both, improving colour identification.
- bonzini 6mo agoHow does it feel to actually answer a question as a geneticist?...
- bonsai_spool 6mo ago> How does it feel to actually answer a question as a geneticist?... Genetics is complicated. If you really want to learn about this, all you need to do is search. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140905-the-women-with-super-human-vision https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140905-the-women-with-s...
- mjg59 6mo agoI'm kind of late to this but for some context - bonzini knows me from a long time ago when I was still a genetics student and the joke here is that given where I am now in my career I still get to occasionally answer questions based on that background
- bonsai_spool 6mo ago> Human women have stripey skin too, but you can't see it under normal light because unlike cats, skin tone in humans is not controlled by the X chromosome. Humans have 'stripey' skin because of somatic mutations, and it's not clear that there are X-chromsome-located skin color loci. Don't believe everything you see on Youtube.
- Symmetry 6mo agoLikewise humans with heterochromatic eyes are generally women.
- bonsai_spool 6mo ago> Likewise humans with heterochromatic eyes are generally women. I haven't heard of this - where is this published? Here's a primer on eye color: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574499/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK574499/
- Symmetry 6mo agoI was misremembering, it's actually cats where hetrochromatic eyes is associated with females. In humans there isn't any difference.