X chromosomes (red and green) meet transiently (left to right) before one is inactivated.

LEE/AAAS

An interphase meeting between X chromosomes, revealed by Na Xu, Chia-Lun Tsai, and Jeannie Lee (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA), ensures that one and only one is silenced.

Silencing of one of the two X chromosomes in a female somatic cell brings the gene dosage level down to that of male cells. Inactivation is controlled by several noncoding RNAs transcribed from, and acting in cis upon, the X inactivation center (XIC). But the field has been perplexed as to how one chromosome knows what the other is doing to keep inactivation mutually exclusive.

The new results suggest that a prior meeting between X chromosomes sets the decision. Although mammalian chromosomes normally only pair during meiosis, the authors saw transient contact between X chromosomes just before the inactivation of one.

Pairing required only the gene sequences of two of the silencing RNAs. Addition of either of these sequences to an autosome drew X chromosomes away from each other and into autosomal pairings. Deletion of the sequences from the X chromosome also interfered with pairing and resulted in none, one, or both X chromosomes being inactivated.

The big next step for the field will be to identify the molecules behind this choice. Thinking on a larger scale, Lee imagines that other epigenetic events might also be preceded by transient chromosomal pairings. In support of this idea, close proximity in late S phase of the two copies of an imprinted locus has been reported.

Reference:

Xu, N., et al.
2006
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Science.
doi: