Color-Coded Cells Reveal Patchwork Patterns of X Chromosome Silencing in Female Brains

Researchers color-coded cells in female mice to display which of their two X chromosomes had been “silenced.”

Janice Y Ahn, Jeannie T Lee [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

Producing brightly speckled red and green snapshots of many different tissues, Johns Hopkins researchers have color-coded cells in female mice to display which of their two X chromosomes has been made inactive, or “silenced.” Read the full release here.

Jeremy Nathans, professor of molecular biology and genetics:

"Calico cats, which are only ever female, have mottled coat colors. They have two different versions of a gene for coat color, which is located on the X chromosome: one version from their mother and the other from their father."

Story was picked up by Carl Zimmer of The New York Times.