What is the Lyon hypothesis?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking for the definition of the Lyon hypothesis. It presents four options relating to chromosomes and asks you to identify the correct description of the Lyon hypothesis from those four options.
Answer
The Lyon hypothesis proposes that in female mammals, one X chromosome in each cell is randomly inactivated to equalize gene expression with males.
The Lyon hypothesis states that in female mammals, one of the two X chromosomes is randomly inactivated in each somatic cell. This equalizes the amount of X chromosome gene products in males and females.
Answer for screen readers
The Lyon hypothesis states that in female mammals, one of the two X chromosomes is randomly inactivated in each somatic cell. This equalizes the amount of X chromosome gene products in males and females.
More Information
The Lyon hypothesis is named after Mary Lyon, who first proposed the idea in 1961. This inactivation process is also known as lyonization.
Tips
A common misconception is that the same X chromosome is inactivated in all cells of a female mammal. In reality, the inactivation is random, leading to a mosaic pattern of X chromosome expression.
Sources
- The Lyon hypothesis - ScienceDirect - sciencedirect.com
- Mary Lyon and the hypothesis of random X chromosome inactivation - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- THE Lyon hypothesis - Nature - nature.com
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