Unusual maintenance of X chromosome inactivation predisposes female lymphocytes for increased expression from the inactive X

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1520113113
• Publication Date: 2016-03-22T03:56:21Z
• Authors: Jianle Wang; Camille M. Syrett; Marianne C. Kramer; Arindam Basu; Michael L. Atchison; Montserrat C. Ang...
• Keywords: XIST; Dosage compensation; RELB; Transcription

Significance Females have increased immune responsiveness than males, and they are more likely to develop autoimmune disorders. The mechanism underlying these observations is unclear, hypotheses suggest an important role for the X chromosome. Here, we discover that inactive predisposed become partially reactivated in mammalian female lymphocytes, resulting overexpression of immunity-related genes. We also demonstrate lymphocytes from systemic lupus erythematosus patients different epigenetic characteristics on compromises transcriptional silencing. These findings first our knowledge link unusual maintenance chromosome Inactivation (the female-specific dosage compensation) bias observed with enhanced immunity autoimmunity susceptibility.