a dual origin of the xist gene from a protein-coding gene and a set of transposable elements双重起源xist基因的转位因子的蛋白质编码基因和一组.pdfVIP

A Dual Origin of the Xist Gene from a Protein-Coding Gene and a Set of Transposable Elements 1 1 1 1,2 Eugeny A. Elisaphenko , Nikolay N. Kolesnikov , Alexander I. Shevchenko , Igor B. Rogozin , 3 4 1 Tatyana B. Nesterova , Neil Brockdorff , Suren M. Zakian * 1 Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Department, Novosibirsk, Russia, 2 National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America, 3 Medical Research Council, Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, London, United Kingdom, 4 Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom Abstract X-chromosome inactivation, which occurs in female eutherian mammals is controlled by a complex X-linked locus termed the X-inactivation center (XIC). Previously it was proposed that genes of the XIC evolved, at least in part, as a result of pseudogenization of protein-coding genes. In this study we show that the key XIC gene Xist, which displays fragmentary homology to a protein-coding gene Lnx3, emerged de novo in early eutherians by integration of mobile elements which gave rise to simple tandem repeats. The Xist gene promoter region and four out of ten exons found in eutherians retain homology to exons of the Lnx3 gene. The remaining six Xist exons including those with simple tandem repeats detectable in their structure have similarity to different transposable elements. Integration of mobile elements into Xist accompanies the overall evolution of the gene and presumably continues in