Project description:Meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) is an essential event in meiotic progression in mammalian spermatogenesis. We found that La Ribonucleoprotein 7 (LARP7) is involved in MSCI. LARP7 plays a role in fetal germ cells to promote their proliferation, but is once abolished in postnatal gonocytes and re-expresses in spermatocytes at the onset of meiosis. In spermatocytes, LARP7 localizes to the XY body, a compartmentalized chromatin domain on sex chromosomes. This study aimed to elucidate a possible function of LARP7 in the XY body by using germline-specific Larp7-deficient mice.
Project description:Meiotic synapsis and recombination ensure correct homologous segregation and genetic diversity. Asynapsed homologues are transcriptionally inactivated by meiotic silencing, which serves a surveillance function and in males drives meiotic sex chromosome inactivation. Silencing depends on the DNA damage response (DDR) network, but how DDR proteins engage repressive chromatin marks is unknown. We identify the histone H3-lysine-9 methyltransferase SETDB1 as the bridge linking the DDR to silencing in male mice. At the onset of silencing, X-chromosome H3K9 trimethylation (H3K9me3) enrichment is downstream of DDR factors. Without Setdb1, the X chromosome accrues DDR proteins but not H3K9me3. Consequently, sex chromosome remodelling and silencing fails, causing germ cell apoptosis. Our data implicate TRIM28 in linking the DDR to SETDB1, and uncover additional factors with putative meiotic XY-silencing functions. Furthermore, we show that SETDB1 imposes timely expression of meiotic and post-meiotic genes. Setdb1 thus unites the DDR network, asynapsis and meiotic chromosome silencing.
Project description:The INO80 protein is the main catalytic subunit of the INO80-chromatin remodeling complex, which is critical for DNA repair and transcription regulation in murine spermatocytes. In this study, we explored the role of INO80 in silencing genes on meiotic sex chromosomes in male mice. INO80 immunolocalization at the XY body in pachytene spermatocytes suggested a role for INO80 in the meiotic sex body. Subsequent deletion of Ino80 resulted in high expression of sex-linked genes. Furthermore, the active form of RNA polymerase II at the sex body of Ino80-null pachytene spermatocytes indicates incomplete inactivation of sex-linked genes. A reduction in the recruitment of initiators of meiotic sex chromosome inhibition (MSCI) argues for INO80-facilitated recruitment of DNA repair factors required for silencing sex-linked genes. This role of INO80 is independent of a common INO80 target H2A.Z. Instead, in the absence of INO80, a reduction in chromatin accessibility at DNA repair sites occurs on the sex chromosomes. These data suggest a role for INO80 in DNA repair factor localization, thereby facilitating the silencing of sex-linked genes during the onset of pachynema.
Project description:The INO80 protein is the main catalytic subunit of the INO80-chromatin remodeling complex, which is critical for DNA repair and transcription regulation in murine spermatocytes. In this study, we explored the role of INO80 in silencing genes on meiotic sex chromosomes in male mice. INO80 immunolocalization at the XY body in pachytene spermatocytes suggested a role for INO80 in the meiotic sex body. Subsequent deletion of Ino80 resulted in high expression of sex-linked genes. Furthermore, the active form of RNA polymerase II at the sex chromosomes of Ino80-null pachytene spermatocytes indicates incomplete inactivation of sex-linked genes. A reduction in the recruitment of initiators of meiotic sex chromosome inhibition (MSCI) argues for INO80-facilitated recruitment of DNA repair factors required for silencing sex-linked genes. This role of INO80 is independent of a common INO80 target, H2A.Z. Instead, in the absence of INO80, a reduction in chromatin accessibility at DNA repair sites occurs on the sex chromosomes. These data suggest a role for INO80 in DNA repair factor localization, thereby facilitating the silencing of sex-linked genes during the onset of pachynema.
Project description:In mammals and several other taxa, the ability of males to cope with the limited synapsis of the X and Y chromosomes during prophase I of meiosis relies on the process of meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). Components of the somatic DNA damage response machinery, including ATR, TOPBP1, MDC1 and BRCA1 play key roles in MSCI, although how they establish XY silencing remains incompletely understood. In particular, it remains unclear how DDR factors coordinate XY silencing with DNA repair, chromosome synapsis and the formation of the sex body, a distinct phase-separated sub-nuclear structure formed during prophase I to house the unsynapsed XY bivalent. Here we report a mutant mouse (Topbp1B5/B5), harboring mutations in the BRCT5 domain of Topbp1, that shows impaired XY silencing but grossly normal sex body formation. While Topbp1B5/B5 mice are viable, without detectable somatic defects, males are completely infertile. Distinct from mice lacking ATR or TOPBP1 specifically during meiosis, Topbp1B5/B5 males exhibit normal chromosome synapsis and canonical markers of DNA repair in early prophase I. ATR signaling is mostly intact in Topbp1B5/B5 spermatocytes, although specific ATR-dependent events are disrupted, including localization of the RNA:DNA helicase Senataxin to chromatin loops of the XY. Strikingly, while Topbp1B5/B5 spermatocytes are able to initiate MSCI the completion of gene silencing is defective, with a subset of X chromosome genes displaying distinct patterns of transcriptional deregulation. These findings suggest a non-canonical role for the ATR-TOPBP1 signaling axis in XY silencing dynamics at advanced stages in pachynema. This is the first DDR mutant that separates XY silencing from sex body formation, as well as TOPBP1’s role in spermatogenesis from its roles in organismal viability.
Project description:TOPBP1 and other DNA damage response proteins play an important role in meiotic sex chromosome inactivation. We investigate a mutant mouse with a mutation in the BRCT5 domain of TOPBP1 and use single-cell RNA-seq to investigate the effect of the mutation on XY silencing.
Project description:The switch from mitosis to meiosis is a major transition that takes place during germ cell development. The precise sequence and the different gene expression programs activated during this process are only partly known. Here, we applied single-cell mRNA sequencing to interrogate the transcriptional changes that occur during the early steps of male germ cell differentiation. We isolated single cells from testes using a Dazl-GFP reporter mouse, which allowed us to focus on germ cells undergoing the mitotic to meiotic transition. We identified 4 distinct meiotic stages with unique transcriptome profiles and reconstructed the timeline of the meiotic entry in silico, from spermatogonia up to the pachytene stage, identifying transcriptional changes with an unprecedented resolution. This allowed us to characterize 3 major transitions in the meiotic prophase 1 of the male germline: meiotic entry, the meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI), and concomitant pachytene transcriptional activation. Meiotic entry is initiated following the downregulation of a tightly connected set of pluripotency factors and accompanied by a global transcriptional silencing. In contrast, during subsequent sex chromosome inactivation at the zygotene stage, gene silencing proceeds in a defined order, related to gene function.
Project description:Meiotic recombination differs between males and females, however, when and how these differences are established is unknown. We identify extensive sex differences at recombination initiation by mapping hotspots of meiotic DNA double strand breaks in male and female mice. Contrary to past findings in humans, few hotspots are used uniquely in either sex. Instead, grossly different recombination landscapes result from up to 15-fold differences in hotspot use between males and females. Indeed, most recombination occurs at sex-biased hotspots. Sex biased hotspots appear to be partly determined by chromosome structure, and DNA methylation, absent in females at the onset of meiosis, plays a substantial role. Sex differences are also evident later in meiosis as the repair frequency of distal meiotic breaks as crossovers diverges in males and females. Suppression of distal crossovers may help to minimize age-related aneuploidy that arises due to cohesion loss during dictyate arrest in females.
Project description:In mammals, the X and Y chromosomes are subject to meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) during prophase I in the male germline, but their status thereafter is currently unclear. An abundance of X-linked spermatogenesis genes has spawned the view that the X must be active [1-8]. On the other hand, the idea that the imprinted paternal X of the early embryo may be pre-inactivated by MSCI suggests that silencing may persist longer [9-12]. To clarify this issue, we establish a comprehensive X-expression profile during mouse spermatogenesis. Here, we discover that the X and Y occupy a novel compartment in the post-meiotic spermatid and adopt a non-Rabl configuration. We demonstrate that this post-meiotic sex chromatin (PMSC) persists throughout spermiogenesis into mature sperm and exhibits epigenetic similarity to the XY body. In the spermatid, 87% of X-linked genes remain suppressed post-meiotically, while autosomes are largely active. We conclude that chromosome-wide X-silencing continues from meiosis to the end of spermiogenesis and discuss implications for proposed mechanisms of imprinted X-inactivation. Independent germ cell preps were used for array analysis. Duplicates were provided for each sample.
Project description:During meiosis, gene expression is silenced in aberrantly unsynapsed chromatin and in heterogametic sex chromosomes. Initiation of sex chromosome silencing is disrupted in meiocytes with sex chromosome-autosome translocations. To determine whether this is due to aberrant synapsis or loss of continuity of sex chromosomes, we engineered Caenorhabditis elegans with non-translocated, bisected X chromosomes. In early meiocytes of mutant males and hermaphrodites, X segments were enriched with euchromatin assembly markers and active RNA polymerase II staining, indicating active transcription. Analysis of RNA-seq data showed that genes from the X chromosome were upregulated in gonads of mutant worms. Contrary to previous models, which predicted that any unsynapsed chromatin is silenced during meiosis, our data indicate that unsynapsed X segments are transcribed. Therefore, our results suggest that sex chromosome chromatin has a unique character that facilitates its meiotic expression when its continuity is lost, regardless of whether or not it is synapsed.