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Conservation of position and exclusive expression of mouse Xist from the inactive X chromosome

Nature volume 351, pages 329–331 (1991)Cite this article

Abstract

X-CHROMOSOME inactivation in mammals is a regulatory phenomenon whereby one of the two X chromosomes in female cells is genetically inactivated, resulting in dosage compensation for X-linked genes between males and females1. In both man and mouse, X-chromosome inactivation is thought to proceed from a single cis-acting switch region or inactivation centre (XlC/Xic)2–5. In the human, XIC has been mapped to band Xql3 (ref. 6) and in the mouse to band XD (ref. 7), and comparative mapping has shown that the XIC regions in the two species are syntenic8. The recently described human XIST gene maps to the XIC region6 and seems to be expressed only from the inactive X chromosome9. We report here that the mouse Xist gene maps to the Xic region of the mouse X chromosome and, using an interspecific Mus spretus/Mus musculus domesticus F1 hybrid mouse carrying the T(X; 16)16H translocation, show that Xist is exclusively expressed from the inactive X chromosome. Conservation between man and mouse of chromosomal position and unique expression exclusively from the inactive X chromosome lends support to the hypothesis that XIST and its mouse homologue are involved in X-chromosome inactivation.

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Author notes

  1. Alan Ashworth: Chester Beatty Laboratories, The Institute of Cancer Research, London SW3 6JB, UK

  2. Sohaila Rastan: To whom correspondence should be addressed

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Comparative Biology, MRC Clinical Research Centre, Harrow, HA1 3UJ, UK

    Neil Brockdorff, Alan Ashworth, Graham F. Kay, Penny Cooper, Sandy Smith, Veronica M. McCabe, Dominic P. Norris, Graeme D. Penny, Dipika Patel & Sohaila Rastan

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  1. Neil Brockdorff
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Brockdorff, N., Ashworth, A., Kay, G. et al. Conservation of position and exclusive expression of mouse Xist from the inactive X chromosome. Nature 351, 329–331 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1038/351329a0

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