X inactive-specific transcript (Xist) expression and X chromosome inactivation in the preattachment bovine embryo.
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Expression of the X inactive-specific transcript (Xist) is thought to be essential for the initiation of X chromosome inactivation and dosage compensation during female embryo development. In the present study, we analyzed the patterns of Xist transcription and the onset of X chromosome inactivation in bovine preattachment embryos. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) revealed the presence of Xist transcripts in all adult female somatic tissues evaluated. In contrast, among the male tissues examined, Xist expression was detected only in testis. No evidence for Xist transcription was observed after a single round of RT-PCR from pools of in vitro-derived embryos at the 2- to 4-cell stage. Xist transcripts were detected as a faint amplicon at the 8-cell stage initially, and consistently thereafter in all stages examined up to and including the expanded blastocyst stage. Xist transcripts, however, were subsequently detected from the 2-cell stage onward after nested RT-PCR. Preferential [3H]thymidine labeling indicative of late replication of one of the X chromosomes was noted in female embryos of different developmental ages as follows: 2 of 7 (28.5%) early blastocysts, 6 of 13 (46.1%) blastocysts, 8 of 11 (72.1%) expanded blastocysts, and 14 of 17 (77.7%) hatched blastocysts. These results suggest that Xist expression precedes the onset of late replication in the bovine embryo, in a pattern compatible with a possible role of bovine Xist in the initiation of X chromosome inactivation. (+info)
Clonality of isolated eosinophils in the hypereosinophilic syndrome.
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The idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (IHES) is a rare disorder characterized by unexplained, persistent eosinophilia associated with multiple organ dysfunction due to eosinophilic tissue infiltration. In the absence of karyotypic abnormalities, there is no specific test to detect clonal eosinophilia in IHES. Analysis of X-chromosome inactivation patterns can be used to determine whether proliferative disorders are clonal in origin. Methylation of HpaII and Hha I sites near the polymorphic trinucleotide repeat of the human androgen receptor gene (HUMARA) has been shown to correlate with X-inactivation. In this study, we have used the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with nested primers to analyze X-inactivation patterns of the HUMARA loci in purified eosinophils from female patients with eosinophilia. Peripheral blood eosinophils were isolated by their autofluoresence using flow cytometric sorting. Eosinophils purified from a female patient presenting with IHES were found to show a clonal pattern of X-inactivation. Eosinophil-depleted leukocytes from this patient were polyclonal by HUMARA analysis, thus excluding skewedness of random X-inactivation. After corticosteroid suppression of her blood eosinophilia, a clonal population of eosinophils could no longer be detected in purified eosinophils. In contrast, eosinophils purified from a patient with Churg-Strauss syndrome and from six patients with reactive eosinophilias attributed to allergy, parasitic infection, or drug reaction showed a polyclonal pattern of X-inactivation by HUMARA analysis. The finding of clonal eosinophilia in a patient presenting with IHES indicates that such patients may have, in reality, a low-grade clonal disorder that can be distinguished from reactive eosinophilias by HUMARA analysis. Further, the method described can be used to monitor disease progression. (+info)
Germ cell development in the XXY mouse: evidence that X chromosome reactivation is independent of sexual differentiation.
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Prior to entry into meiosis, XX germ cells in the fetal ovary undergo X chromosome reactivation. The signal for reactivation is thought to emanate from the genital ridge, but it is unclear whether it is specific to the developing ovary. To determine whether the signals are present in the developing testis as well as the ovary, we examined the expression of X-linked genes in germ cells from XXY male mice. To facilitate this analysis, we generated XXY and XX fetuses carrying X chromosomes that were differentially marked and subject to nonrandom inactivation. This pattern of nonrandom inactivation was maintained in somatic cells but, in XX as well as XXY fetuses, both parental alleles were expressed in germ cell-enriched cell populations. Because testis differentiation is temporally and morphologically normal in the XXY testis and because all germ cells embark upon a male pathway of development, these results provide compelling evidence that X chromosome reactivation in fetal germ cells is independent of the somatic events of sexual differentiation. Proper X chromosome dosage is essential for the normal fertility of male mammals, and abnormalities in germ cell development are apparent in the XXY testis within several days of X reactivation. Studies of exceptional germ cells that survive in the postnatal XXY testis demonstrated that surviving germ cells are exclusively XY and result from rare nondisjunctional events that give rise to clones of XY cells. (+info)
X-chromosome inactivation patterns do not implicate asymmetric splitting of the inner cell mass in the aetiology of twin-twin transfusion syndrome.
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The aetiology of twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) is unclear. We investigated the hypothesis that monochorionic (MC) pregnancies with TTTS are associated with differences in the timing and symmetry of twinning compared to MC twin pregnancies without TTTS. DNA was extracted from the umbilical cord vessels of 26 female MC twins, 14 with and 12 without TTTS on serial antenatal ultrasound. X-inactivation patterns were determined by DNA digestion with Hhal and Hpall followed by polymerase chain reaction for a polymorphic trinucleotide repeat in the androgen receptor gene. Products were quantified by densitometry and results compared to those in peripheral blood samples of adult female controls. The median degree of non-random inactivation was similar in MC twins with TTTS, in MC twins without TTTS, and in adult controls. The percentage of individuals with skewed (> or =30/70%) inactivation patterns was no different in MC twins with TTTS compared to those without TTTS, and was similar to adult controls using either enzyme technique. In conclusion we found no difference in the degree or frequency of non-random X-inactivation patterns in TTTS. X-inactivation patterns do not appear to be a useful tool for studying the symmetry of inner cell mass splitting in monochorionic twins. (+info)
Association between nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation and BRCA1 mutation in germline DNA of patients with ovarian cancer.
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BACKGROUND: Most human female cells contain two X chromosomes, only one of which is active. The process of X-chromosome inactivation, which occurs early in development, is usually random, producing tissues with equal mixtures of cells having active X chromosomes of either maternal or paternal origin. However, nonrandom inactivation may occur in a subset of females. If a tumor suppressor gene were located on the X chromosome and if females with a germline mutation in one copy of that suppressor gene experienced nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation, then some or all of the tissues of such women might lack the wild-type suppressor gene function. This scenario could represent a previously unrecognized mechanism for development of hereditary cancers. We investigated whether such a mechanism might contribute to the development of hereditary ovarian cancers. METHODS: Patterns of X-chromosome inactivation were determined by means of polymerase chain reaction amplification of the CAG-nucleotide repeat of the androgen receptor (AR) gene after methylation-sensitive restriction endonuclease digestion of blood mononuclear cell DNA from patients with invasive (n = 213) or borderline (n = 44) ovarian cancer and control subjects without a personal or family history of cancer (n = 50). BRCA1 gene status was determined by means of single-strand conformational polymorphism analysis and DNA sequencing. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Among individuals informative for the AR locus, nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation was found in the DNA of 53% of those with invasive cancer versus 28% of those with borderline cancer (P = .005) and 33% of healthy control subjects (P = .016). Nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation can be a heritable trait. Nine of 11 AR-informative carriers of germline BRCA1 mutations demonstrated nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation (.0002 < P < .008, for simultaneous occurrence of both). IMPLICATIONS: Nonrandom X-chromosome inactivation may be a predisposing factor for the development of invasive, but not borderline, ovarian cancer. (+info)
Evidence that mutations in the X-linked DDP gene cause incompletely penetrant and variable skewed X inactivation.
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X chromosome inactivation results in the random transcriptional silencing of one of the two X chromosomes early in female development. After random inactivation, certain deleterious X-linked mutations can create a selective disadvantage for cells in which the mutation is on the active X chromosome, leading to X inactivation patterns with the mutation on the inactive X chromosome in nearly 100% of the individual's cells. In contrast to the homogeneous patterns of complete skewed inactivation noted for many X-linked disorders, here we describe a family segregating a mutation in the dystonia-deafness peptide (DDP) gene, in which female carriers show incompletely penetrant and variable X inactivation patterns in peripheral blood leukocytes, ranging between 50:50 and >95:5. To address the genetic basis for the unusual pattern of skewing in this family, we first mapped the locus responsible for the variable skewing to the proximal long arm (Xq12-q22) of the X chromosome (Z=5. 7, P=.002, LOD score 3.57), a region that includes both the DDP and the XIST genes. Examination of multiple cell types from women carrying a DDP mutation and of peripheral blood leukocytes from women from two unrelated families who carry different mutations in the DDP gene suggests that the skewed X inactivation is the result of selection against cells containing the mutant DDP gene on the active X chromosome, although skewing is apparently not as severe as that seen for many other deleterious X-linked mutations. Thus, DDP is an example of an X-linked gene for which mutations cause partial cell selection and thus incompletely skewed X inactivation in peripheral blood leukocytes. (+info)
Bex1, a gene with increased expression in parthenogenetic embryos, is a member of a novel gene family on the mouse X chromosome.
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Parthenogenetic and normal blastocysts were compared using differential display analysis as a means to identify new imprinted genes. A single gene was identified with increased expression in parthenogenetic blastocysts, suggesting it might be an imprinted gene expressed from the maternally inherited allele. The gene, named Bex1 (brainexpressedX-linked gene), maps near Plp on the mouse X chromosome and to Xq22 in humans. Database homology searches revealed two additional uncharacterized cDNAs similar to Bex1 that were named Bex2 and Bex3. Allele-specific expression analysis of Bex1 using F1 blastocysts indicated an excess of transcript expressed from the maternally inherited allele compared with the paternally inherited allele. This excess level of transcript derived from the maternally inherited allele may be due to imprinted X inactivation of the paternally inherited allele in the extraembryonic lineages of female embryos rather than a result of genomic imprinting. (+info)
An N-terminal truncation uncouples the sex-transforming and dosage compensation functions of sex-lethal.
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In Drosophila melanogaster, Sex-lethal (Sxl) controls autoregulation and sexual differentiation by alternative splicing but regulates dosage compensation by translational repression. To elucidate how Sxl functions in splicing and translational regulation, we have ectopically expressed a full-length Sxl protein (Sx.FL) and a protein lacking the N-terminal 40 amino acids (Sx-N). The Sx.FL protein recapitulates the activity of Sxl gain-of-function mutations, as it is both sex transforming and lethal in males. In contrast, the Sx-N protein unlinks the sex-transforming and male-lethal effects of Sxl. The Sx-N proteins are compromised in splicing functions required for sexual differentiation, displaying only partial autoregulatory activity and almost no sex-transforming activity. On the other hand, the Sx-N protein does retain substantial dosage compensation function and kills males almost as effectively as the Sx.FL protein. In the course of our analysis of the Sx.FL and Sx-N transgenes, we have also uncovered a novel, negative autoregulatory activity, in which Sxl proteins bind to the 3' untranslated region of Sxl mRNAs and decrease Sxl protein expression. This negative autoregulatory activity may be a homeostasis mechanism. (+info)