Dynamics of gene silencing during X inactivation using allele-specific RNA-seq.

ABSTRACT:

Background

During early embryonic development, one of the two X chromosomes in mammalian female cells is inactivated to compensate for a potential imbalance in transcript levels with male cells, which contain a single X chromosome. Here, we use mouse female embryonic stem cells (ESCs) with non-random X chromosome inactivation (XCI) and polymorphic X chromosomes to study the dynamics of gene silencing over the inactive X chromosome by high-resolution allele-specific RNA-seq.

Results

Induction of XCI by differentiation of female ESCs shows that genes proximal to the X-inactivation center are silenced earlier than distal genes, while lowly expressed genes show faster XCI dynamics than highly expressed genes. The active X chromosome shows a minor but significant increase in gene

SUBMITTER: Marks H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4546214 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature