{"doi":"10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.001","title":"A novel factor modulating X chromosome dosage compensation in Anopheles","abstract":"Dosage compensation (DC), a process countering chromosomal imbalance in individuals with heteromorphic sex chromosomes, has been molecularly characterized only in mammals, Caenorhabditis elegans , and fruit flies. 1 In Drosophila melanogaster males, it is achieved by an approximately 2-fold hypertranscription of the monosomic X chromosome mediated by the MSL complex. 2 , 3 The complex is not assembled on female X chromosomes because production of its key protein MSL-2 is prevented due to intron retention and inhibition of translation by Sex-lethal, a female-specific protein operating at the top of the sex determination pathway. 4 It remains unclear how DC is mechanistically regulated in other insects. In the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae , an approximately 2-fold hypertranscription of the male X also occurs 5 by a yet-unknown molecular mechanism distinct from that in D . melanogaster . 6 Here we show that a male-specifically spliced gene we call 007 , which arose by a tandem duplication in the Anopheles ancestral lineage, is involved in the control of DC in males. Homozygous 007 knockouts lead to a global downregulation of the male X, phenotypically manifested by a slower development compared to wild-type mosquitoes or mutant females—however, without loss of viability or fertility. In females, a 007 intron retention promoted by the sex determination protein Femaleless, known to prevent hypertranscription from both X chromosomes, 7 introduces a premature termination codon apparently rendering the female transcripts non-productive. In addition to providing a unique perspective on DC evolution, the 007 , with its conserved properties, may represent an important addition to a genetic toolbox for malaria vector control.","journal":"Current Biology","year":2023,"id":340232,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":16,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9586,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":339981,"name":"Paolo Ribeca","orcid":"0000-0001-5599-3933","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":209288,"name":"Luca Ferretti","orcid":"0000-0001-7578-7301","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":814186,"name":"Andrew Hammond","orcid":"0000-0002-1757-5009","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1074593,"name":"Jaroslaw Krzywinski","orcid":"0000-0001-6363-9790","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1074592,"name":"Elzbieta Krzywińska","orcid":"0000-0002-0337-0782","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":48,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:10:54.145367Z","pmid":"37774706","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}