dosage compensation
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dosage compensation
a genetical mechanism in which ALLELES of a gene automatically regulate the amount of a useful product produced, so that homozygous-dominant GENOTYPES produce the same amount of gene product as heterozygotes. In this way the two genotypes cannot be distinguished. Dosage compensation occurs regularly in female mammals where one X-chromosome in each cell is thought to become inactivated, leading to equal amounts of gene products in males and females. See INACTIVE-X HYPOTHESIS.Collins Dictionary of Biology, 3rd ed. © W. G. Hale, V. A. Saunders, J. P. Margham 2005