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The Y chromosome contains large amounts of constitutive heterochromatin. Why might there be more constitutive heterochromatin in the Y chromosome than in other chromosomes?Answer: |
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Answer» Answer: Heterochromatin is a tightly packed form of DNA or condensed DNA, which comes in multiple varieties. These varieties lie on a continuum between the two extremes of constitutive heterochromatin and facultative heterochromatin. Both play a role in the expression of GENES. Because it is tightly packed, it was thought to be inaccessible to polymerases and therefore not transcribed, however according to Volpe et al. (2002),[1] and many other papers since,[2] much of this DNA is in fact transcribed, but it is CONTINUOUSLY TURNED over via RNA-induced transcriptional silencing (RITS). RECENT studies with electron microscopy and OsO4 staining reveal that the dense packing is not due to the chromatin. |
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