scholarly journals Detection of skewed X-chromosome inactivation in Fragile X syndrome and X chromosome aneuploidy using quantitative melt analysis

Author(s):  
David E. Godler ◽  
Yoshimi Inaba ◽  
Charles E. Schwartz ◽  
Quang M. Bui ◽  
Elva Z. Shi ◽  
...  

Methylation of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) exon 1/intron 1 boundary positioned fragile X related epigenetic element 2 (FREE2), reveals skewed X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in fragile X syndrome full mutation (FM: CGG > 200) females. XCI skewing has been also linked to abnormal X-linked gene expression with the broader clinical impact for sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs). In this study, 10 FREE2 CpG sites were targeted using methylation specific quantitative melt analysis (MS-QMA), including 3 sites that could not be analysed with previously used EpiTYPER system. The method was applied for detection of skewed XCI in FM females and in different types of SCA. We tested venous blood and saliva DNA collected from 107 controls (CGG < 40), and 148 FM and 90 SCA individuals. MS-QMA identified: (i) most SCAs if combined with a Y chromosome test; (ii) locus-specific XCI skewing towards the hypomethylated state in FM females; and (iii) skewed XCI towards the hypermethylated state in SCA with 3 or more X chromosomes, and in 5% of the 47,XXY individuals. MS-QMA output also showed significant correlation with the EpiTYPER reference method in FM males and females (P < 0.0001) and SCAs (P < 0.05). In conclusion, we demonstrate use of MS-QMA to quantify skewed XCI in two applications with diagnostic utility.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuening Hou ◽  
Jie Sun ◽  
Chen Liu ◽  
Jihong Hao

Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS) is a rare X-linked immunodeficiency disorder caused by abnormal expression of Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome protein due to WAS gene mutation, which is generally characterized by microthrombocytopenia, eczema, recurrent infections, and high risk of autoimmune complications and hematological malignancies. Although affected males with WAS usually manifest severe symptoms, female carriers have no significant clinical manifestations. Here, we describe a Chinese girl diagnosed with WAS carrying a heterozygous missense mutation in exon 2 of the WAS gene. The patient presented with persistent thrombocytopenia with small platelets and decreased WAS protein detected by flow cytometry and western blot analysis. The methylation analysis of the HUMARA gene displayed an extremely skewed X-chromosome inactivation (SXCI) pattern, where the X-chromosomes bearing normal WAS gene were predominantly inactivated, leaving the mutant gene active. Hence, our results suggest that completely inactivating the unaffected paternal X-chromosomes may be the reason for such phenotype in this female patient. SXCI has important implications for genetic counseling of female carriers with a family history of WAS.


2017 ◽  
Vol 372 (1733) ◽  
pp. 20160363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Sahakyan ◽  
Kathrin Plath ◽  
Claire Rougeulle

The human blastocyst forms 5 days after one of the smallest human cells (the sperm) fertilizes one of the largest human cells (the egg). Depending on the sex-chromosome contribution from the sperm, the resulting embryo will either be female, with two X chromosomes (XX), or male, with an X and a Y chromosome (XY). In early development, one of the major differences between XX female and XY male embryos is the conserved process of X-chromosome inactivation (XCI), which compensates gene expression of the two female X chromosomes to match the dosage of the single X chromosome of males. Most of our understanding of the pre-XCI state and XCI establishment is based on mouse studies, but recent evidence from human pre-implantation embryo research suggests that many of the molecular steps defined in the mouse are not conserved in human. Here, we will discuss recent advances in understanding the control of X-chromosome dosage compensation in early human embryonic development and compare it to that of the mouse. This article is part of the themed issue ‘X-chromosome inactivation: a tribute to Mary Lyon’.


1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malgorzata Schmidt ◽  
Andrea Certoma ◽  
Desirée Du Sart ◽  
Paul Kalitsis ◽  
Margaret Leversha ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Szelenyi ◽  
Danielle Fisenne ◽  
Joseph E Knox ◽  
Julie A Harris ◽  
James A Gornet ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTX-chromosome inactivation (XCI) in females is vital for normal brain function and cognition, as many X-linked genetic mutations lead to mental retardation and autism spectrum disorders, such as the fragile X syndrome (FXS). However, the degree by which XCI regulates disease presentation has been poorly investigated. To study this regulation in the mouse, here we quantified the brainwide composition of active-XC cells at single cell resolution using an X-linked MECP2-EGFP allele with known parent-of-origin. We present evidence that whole-brains, including all regions, on average favor maternal XC-active cells by 20%, or 8 million cells. This bias was conserved in heterozygous FXS mutant mice, which also corresponded to disease penetrance in maternal but not paternal FMR1 null mice. To localize the physical source of behavioral penetrance, brain-wide correlational screens successfully mapped mouse performance to cell densities in putative sensorimotor (e.g. sensory hindbrain, thalamus, globus pallidus) and sociability (e.g. visual/entorhinal cortices, bed nucleus stria terminalis, medial preoptic area) behavioral circuits of the open field sensorimotor and 3-chamber sociability assays, respectively. Overall, 50%/50% healthy/mutant cell density ratios in these sub-networks were required for disease presentation in each behavior. These results suggest female X-linked behavioral penetrance of disease is regulated at the distributed level of mutant cell density in behavioral circuits, which is set by XCI that is subject to parent-of-origin effects. This work provides a novel finding behind the broad and varied behavioral phenotypes commonly featured in female patients debilitated by X-linked mental disorders and may offer new entry points for behavioral therapeutics.


Author(s):  
Yixi Sun ◽  
Yali Yang ◽  
Yuqin Luo ◽  
Min Chen ◽  
Liya Wang ◽  
...  

Xq28 (involving MECP2) duplication syndrome is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder in males, most females are asymptomatic carriers, but there are phenotypic heterogeneities in the females. Skewed X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) seems to prevent duplicated region activation in asymptomatic females, but it remains controversial. Herein we reported two asymptomatic females (daughter and mother) with interstitial Xq28 duplication. HUMARA and RP2 assays showed that both had complete skewed XCI, the Xq28 duplicated chromosome was inactivated in the daughter, but surprisingly, it was activated in her mother. Interestingly, by combining RNA sequencing and whole-exome sequencing, we confirmed that XIST only expressed in the Xq28 duplication chromosomes of the two females, indicating that the Xq28 duplication chromosomes were inactive. Meanwhile, MECP2 and most XCI genes in the duplicated X-chromosomes were not transcriptionally expressed or upregulated, precluding major clinical phenotypes in the two females, especially the mother. We showed that XCI status detected by RNA sequencing was more relevant for establishing the clinical phenotype of MECP2 duplication females. It suggested there were other factors maintaining the XCI status in addition to DNA methylation, a possible additional inhibition mechanism occured at the transcriptional level in the unmethylated X-chromosome, counter balancing the MECP2 duplication’s detrimental phenotype effects


2019 ◽  
pp. 75-87
Author(s):  
AI Ibraimov

X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is the process by which one of two X chromosomes in mammalian female cells is inactivated. The DNA of the inactive X chromosome is packaged in transcriptionally inactive heterochromatin. It is generally accepted that XCI have evolved to enable dosage compensation in mammals as a way to equalize X-linked gene expression between XX and XY individuals. However, there remain several controversial issues regarding the causes of XCI. The most important of them, why dosage compensation of genes? An alternative hypothesis is discussed that XCI is caused by dose compensation for heterochromatin, rather than genes, in the genome of female mammals due to the lack of a sex chromosome in their karyotype with a large constitutive heterochromatin block, as in Y chromosome in males. It is for this reason that heterochromatinization of the euchromatin regions of one of the X chromosomes occurs. The biological meaning of heterochromatinization is to increase the density of condensed chromatin (??) around the interphase nucleus, responsible for removing excess heat from the nucleus into the cytoplasm, since the compaction of ?? depends on the amount of heterochromatin. The consequence of this process is the inactivation of genes that were in the area of heterochromatinization of the X chromosome. Keywords: X-chromosome inactivation; Lyonization; Gene dosage compensation; Heterochromatin dosage compensation; Cell thermoregulation


Author(s):  
Е.А. Фонова ◽  
Е.Н. Толмачева ◽  
А.А. Кашеварова ◽  
М.Е. Лопаткина ◽  
К.А. Павлова ◽  
...  

Смещение инактивации Х-хромосомы может быть следствием и маркером нарушения клеточной пролиферации при вариациях числа копий ДНК на Х-хромосоме. Х-сцепленные CNV выявляются как у женщин с невынашиванием беременности и смещением инактивации Х-хромосомы (с частотой 33,3%), так и у пациентов с умственной отсталостью и смещением инактивацией у их матерей (с частотой 40%). A skewed X-chromosome inactivation can be a consequence and a marker of impaired cell proliferation in the presence of copy number variations (CNV) on the X chromosome. X-linked CNVs are detected in women with miscarriages and a skewed X-chromosome inactivation (with a frequency of 33.3%), as well as in patients with intellectual disability and skewed X-chromosome inactivation in their mothers (with a frequency of 40%).


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1114
Author(s):  
Ali Youness ◽  
Charles-Henry Miquel ◽  
Jean-Charles Guéry

Women represent 80% of people affected by autoimmune diseases. Although, many studies have demonstrated a role for sex hormone receptor signaling, particularly estrogens, in the direct regulation of innate and adaptive components of the immune system, recent data suggest that female sex hormones are not the only cause of the female predisposition to autoimmunity. Besides sex steroid hormones, growing evidence points towards the role of X-linked genetic factors. In female mammals, one of the two X chromosomes is randomly inactivated during embryonic development, resulting in a cellular mosaicism, where about one-half of the cells in a given tissue express either the maternal X chromosome or the paternal one. X chromosome inactivation (XCI) is however not complete and 15 to 23% of genes from the inactive X chromosome (Xi) escape XCI, thereby contributing to the emergence of a female-specific heterogeneous population of cells with bi-allelic expression of some X-linked genes. Although the direct contribution of this genetic mechanism in the female susceptibility to autoimmunity still remains to be established, the cellular mosaicism resulting from XCI escape is likely to create a unique functional plasticity within female immune cells. Here, we review recent findings identifying key immune related genes that escape XCI and the relationship between gene dosage imbalance and functional responsiveness in female cells.


Development ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 251-258
Author(s):  
Andy McMahon ◽  
Mandy Fosten ◽  
Marilyn Monk

The pattern of expression of the two X chromosomes was investigated in pre-meiotic germ cells from 12½-day-old female embryos heterozygous for the variant electrophoretic forms of the X-linked enzyme phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK-1). If such germ cells carry the preferentially active Searle's translocated X chromosome (Lyon, Searle, Ford & Ohno, 1964), then only the Pgk-1 allele on this chromosome is expressed. This confirms Johnston's evidence (1979,1981) that Pgk-1 expression reflects a single active X chromosome at this time. Extracts of 12½-day germ cells from heterozygous females carrying two normal X chromosomes show both the A and the B forms of PGK; since only one X chromosome in each cell is active, different alleles must be expressed in different cells, suggesting that X-chromosome inactivation is normally random in the germ line. This result makes it unlikely that germ cells are derived from the yolk-sac endoderm where the paternally derived X chromosome is preferentially inactivated. In their pattern of X-chromosome inactivation, germ cells evidently resemble other tissues derived from the epiblast.


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