autoregulation of the drosophila noncoding rox1 rna gene果蝇基因非编码rna rox1的自身调节.pdfVIP

Autoregulation of the Drosophila Noncoding roX1 RNA Gene 1 1,2 Chiat Koo Lim , Richard L. Kelley * 1 Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America, 2 Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, United States of America Abstract Most genes along the male single X chromosome in Drosophila are hypertranscribed about two-fold relative to each of the two female X chromosomes. This is accomplished by the MSL (male-specific lethal) complex that acetylates histone H4 at lysine 16. The MSL complex contains two large noncoding RNAs, roX1 (RNA on X) and roX2, that help target chromatin modifying enzymes to the X. The roX RNAs are functionally redundant but differ in size, sequence, and transcriptional control. We wanted to find out how roX1 production is regulated. Ectopic DC can be induced in wild-type (roX1+ + roX2 ) females if we provide a heterologous source of MSL2. However, in the absence of roX2, we found that roX1 expression failed to come on reliably. Using an in situ hybridization probe that is specific only to endogenous roX1, we found that expression was restored if we introduced either roX2 or a truncated but functional version of roX1. This shows that pre-existing roX RNA is required to positively autoregulate roX1 expression. We also observed massive cis spreading of the MSL complex from the site of roX1 transcription at its endogenous location on the X chromosome. We propose that retention of newly assembled MSL complex around the roX gene is needed to drive sustained transcription an