Gender in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is determined by the ratio of X to Y chromosomes. Thus it is necessary that some mechanism to equalize the levels of gene products in males and females produced by the sex-linked genes be invoked. A regulatory protein was identified by Kuroda and Baker which can be shown to be predominantly associated with the X chromosome in males but not in females, suggesting that it may be involved in the increased transcription seen in males to compensate for the larger number of gene copies found in females. The goal of the work to be done is to dissect and to understand the biochemical basis of dosage compensation.*** //
