Journal
FEBS LETTERS
Volume 583, Issue 5, Pages 857-864Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.02.004
Keywords
X-chromosome inactivation; xiRNA; RNA interference; Chromatin; Xist; Tsix
Funding
- Swedish Medical Research Council
- Swedish Cancer Research foundation
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Mammalian X-chromosome inactivation is controlled by a multilayered silencing pathway involving both short and long non-coding RNAs, which differentially recruit the epigenetic machinery to establish chromatin asymmetries. In response to developmentally regulated small RNAs, dicer, a key effector of RNA interference, locally silences Xist on the active X-chromosome and establishes the heterochromatin conformation along the silent X-chromosome. The 1.6 kb RepA RNA initiates silencing by targeting the PRC2 polycomb complex to the inactive X-chromosome. In addition, the nuclear microenvironment is implicated in the initiation and maintenance of X-chromosome asymmetries. Here we review new findings involving these various RNA species in terms of understanding Xist gene regulation and the establishment of X-chromosome inactivation. (C) 2009 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.
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