Meiotic Consequences of Aneuploidy: Mouse Models of Down Syndrome
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ABSTRACT: Aneuploidy, and especially the presence of unpaired chromosomal axes during meiosis, can cause infertility. However, it is not known if extra, unpaired autosomal chromosome segments acquire characteristic protein modifications and undergo transcriptional silencing (meiotic silencing of unpaired chromatin, or MSUC) similar to the unpaired regions of the X and Y chromosomes during spermatogenesis. We used three mouse models of Down syndrome, involving either an extra chromosome or translocation trisomy, to test requirements and consequences of meiotic protein modification and gene silencing in spermatocytes. These models reveal that copy number alone is not sufficient for up-regulation of genes in the trisomic interval, and that MSUC-promoting modifications are not sufficient for down-regulation of genes that reside in unpaired chromatin during meiosis. The position of a trisomic region relative to a centromere, the pairing status of the centromere, and the physical extent of the unpaired chromosomal region all affected assembly of meiotic protein modifications typical of MSUC. One key determinant to modification of unpaired chromatin and infertility in trisomy male mice appears to be proximity of unpaired chromatin to a centromere. Furthermore, the presence of an extra, unpaired centromere, but not translocation trisomy, causes global misregulation of transcription in spermatocytes. Thus, neither trisomy per se, nor chromatin modifications of unpaired chromosomal segments, have major effects on gene expression or meiotic success, but an intact unpaired chromosome has profoundly negative effects on meiotic gene expression.
ORGANISM(S): Mus musculus
PROVIDER: GSE13123 | GEO | 2008/10/11
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA109663
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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