# Effects of sex chromosome constitution on global gene expression

> **NIH NIH F32** · WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RES · 2020 · $40,578

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Males and females have striking differences in development, health and disease, but the underlying
mechanisms remain poorly understood. At the genetic level, different sex chromosome constitutions,
XX in females and XY in males, result in differential expression of sex chromosome genes.
Autosomal genes are also differentially expressed between the sexes, but, since autosomal DNA
content does not vary by sex, this difference is evidently due to epigenetics. Interestingly, sex
chromosome genes encode transcription factors and chromatin modifiers, which may have different
expression levels and/or activities in males and females. Thus, I hypothesize that the actions of
epigenetic and transcriptional regulators encoded by the X and Y chromosomes create sexually
dimorphic expression across the genome. In Aim 1, I will ascertain whether epigenetic and
transcriptional programs depend on sex chromosome dosage using cells from males and females
varying in their sex chromosome complement (XO, XX, XY, XXY, XYY, and XXX). In Aim 2, I will
assess activities of candidate regulatory genes on the sex chromosomes in males and females, and
individually manipulate them to investigate their functional roles in epigenetic and transcriptional sex
differences. This work will increase our mechanistic understanding of differences between the sexes,
and motivate future research on sex-biased diseases.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10267656
- **Project number:** 5F32HD091966-04
- **Recipient organization:** WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RES
- **Principal Investigator:** Adrianna K San Roman
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $40,578
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2021-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10267656

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10267656, Effects of sex chromosome constitution on global gene expression (5F32HD091966-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10267656. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*