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Mosaic heterochromatin of the inactive X chromosome in vole Microtus rossiaemeridionalis

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Abstract

During early development in female mammals, one of the two X chromosomes recruits a variety of protein complexes that establish repressive chromatin modifications and thus becomes transcriptionally silenced. This process is termed X chromosome inactivation (XCI). Imprinted XCI of the paternal X chromosome occurs in the extraembryonic lineages of some eutherian species (e.g., rodents). In the cells of the embryo proper, the choice of the X chromosome for XCI is random. In this study we compared the distribution of some histone modifications on metaphase spreads from extraembryonic endoderm and fibroblast cell lines in vole Microtus rossiaemeridionalis, which are examples of imprinted and random XCI, respectively. The X chromosome of M. rossiaemeridionalis bears a large constitutive heterochromatic block enriched with repeated DNA, making this species a useful model for studying chromatin structure. In vole fibroblasts and the majority of extraembryonic endoderm cells, the silencing of the inactive X chromosome appears to involve two types of facultative heterochromatin. The first is defined by H3K27 trimethylation and H2A ubiquitylation and colocalizes with previously described Xist RNA banding, whereas the second is associated with H3K9 trimethylation and the heterochromatic protein HP1. The block of constitutive heterochromatin on the M. rossiaemeridionalis X chromosome has the same pattern of chromatin modifications as the second type of facultative heterochromatin. The distribution of histone modifications, HP1 protein, and Xist RNA on vole inactive X chromosome is the same during both the imprinted and the random XCI.

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Acknowledgments

We thank E. Vaskova for technical assistance and Claire Senner for valuable comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant No. 08-04-00346) and the Program of the Russian Academy of Sciences “Molecular and Cellular Biology.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Siberian Department, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, ac. Lavrentyev Avenue, 10, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

    Alexander I. Shevchenko, Sophia V. Pavlova, Elena V. Dementyeva & Suren M. Zakian

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  1. Alexander I. Shevchenko
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  2. Sophia V. Pavlova
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  3. Elena V. Dementyeva
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  4. Suren M. Zakian
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Correspondence to Suren M. Zakian.

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335_2009_9201_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Supplementary material 1 (TIFF 4091 kb) Characteristics of vole XX XEN cell lines used in the study. a Gene expression profiles of vole XEN and fibroblast cells revealed by RT-PCR. PCR primer pairs and conditions have been previously described (Shevchenko et al. 2008). (Em), 7.5-dpc vole embryo; (X1, X2, X3), vole XEN cell lines; (ef) and (af), vole embryonic and adult fibroblasts. b The morphology of vole XEN cells. c Xist RNA (red signal) in vole XX XEN cells detected by RNA FISH

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Shevchenko, A.I., Pavlova, S.V., Dementyeva, E.V. et al. Mosaic heterochromatin of the inactive X chromosome in vole Microtus rossiaemeridionalis. Mamm Genome 20, 644–653 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00335-009-9201-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00335-009-9201-x

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