RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 The simultaneous interaction of MSL2 with CLAMP and DNA provides redundancy in the initiation of dosage compensation in Drosophila males JF Development JO Development FD The Company of Biologists Limited SP dev179663 DO 10.1242/dev.179663 VO 146 IS 19 A1 Tikhonova, Evgeniya A1 Fedotova, Anna A1 Bonchuk, Artem A1 Mogila, Vladic A1 Larschan, Erica N. A1 Georgiev, Pavel A1 Maksimenko, Oksana YR 2019 UL http://dev.biologists.org/content/146/19/dev179663.abstract AB The binding of the Drosophila male-specific lethal dosage compensation complex (DCC) exclusively to the male X chromosome provides an excellent model system to understand mechanisms of selective recruitment of protein complexes to chromatin. Previous studies showed that the male-specific organizer of the complex, MSL2, and the ubiquitous DNA-binding protein CLAMP are key players in the specificity of X chromosome binding. The CXC domain of MSL2 binds to genomic sites of DCC recruitment in vitro. Another conserved domain of MSL2, named Clamp-binding domain (CBD) directly interacts with the N-terminal zinc-finger domain of CLAMP. Here, we found that inactivation of CBD or CXC individually only modestly affected recruitment of the DCC to the X chromosome in males. However, combination of these two genetic lesions within the same MSL2 mutant resulted in an increased loss of DCC recruitment to the X chromosome. Thus, proper MSL2 positioning requires an interaction with either CLAMP or DNA to initiate dosage compensation in Drosophila males.