Every semester, EES organise a seminar series, which takes place on Mondays at 16:00 at Biozentrum, Lecture Hall B 01.019
Winter Semester 2025/26
Claudia Keller Valsecchi
University of Basel, Switzerland
Epigenetics of Sex Differences
Abstract: Sex chromosome dosage compensation provides a powerful model to study gene regulation and epigenetic mechanisms. While mechanisms have been well characterized in mammals, Drosophila, and C. elegans, sex chromsoomes and their regulatory mechanisms are poorly characterized in non-model species. In the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae, only females are blood-feeding and thus able to transmit the disease-causing parasite. Our lab identified SOA, a sex-specific DNA-binding protein essential for X chromosome upregulation in mosquito males that does not rely on H4K16ac and thus constitute a novel regulatory pathway with direct implications for malaria vector control. Comparative analyses across insects and other animal clades demonstrate striking diversity in SCDC mechanisms, but the convergent recruitment of histone H4K16 acetylation in the female-heterogametic crustacean Artemia franciscana. CUT&Tag profiling shows that H4K16ac is confined to the non-recombining Z stratum in females, established in embryogenesis but disrupted with age, linking chromatin dynamics to lifespan differences. Together, these findings highlight the evolutionary plasticity of SCDC, uncovering general principles of chromatin-based gene regulation and its sex- and stage-specific consequences.
Host: John Parsch
Previous and future talks in the EES seminar series