A screen for retrotransposed imprinted genes reveals an association between X chromosome homology and maternal germ-line methylation.
Imprinted genes undergo epigenetic modifications during gametogenesis, which lead to transcriptional silencing of either the maternally or the paternally derived allele in the subsequent generation. Previous work has suggested an association between imprinting and the products of retrotransposition, but the nature of this link is not well defined. In the mouse, three imprinted genes have been described that originated by retrotransposition and overlap CpG islands which undergo methylation during oogenesis. Nap1l5, U2af1-rs1, and Inpp5f_v2 are likely to encode proteins and share two additional genetic properties: they are located within introns of host transcripts and are derived from parental genes on the X chromosome. Using these sequence features alone, we identified Mcts2, a novel candidate imprinted retrogene on mouse Chromosome 2. Mcts2 has been validated as imprinted by demonstrating that it is paternally expressed and undergoes promoter methylation during oogenesis. The orthologous human retrogenes NAP1L5, INPP5F_V2, and MCTS2 are also shown to be paternally expressed, thus delineating novel imprinted loci on human Chromosomes 4, 10, and 20. The striking correlation between imprinting and X chromosome provenance suggests that retrotransposed elements with homology to the X chromosome can be selectively targeted for methylation during mammalian oogenesis.
Wood
Andrew J
AJ
Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
Roberts
Roland G
RG
Monk
David
D
Moore
Gudrun E
GE
Schulz
Reiner
R
Oakey
Rebecca J
RJ
D000818:Animals; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D018392:Genomic Imprinting / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D000072181:Inositol Polyphosphate 5-Phosphatases; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D015513:Oncogene Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010063:Ovum / Q000378:metabolism*; D010744:Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010802:Phylogeny; D018626:Retroelements / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000235:genetics*
D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; D015513:Oncogene Proteins; D018626:Retroelements; D010744:Phosphoric Monoester Hydrolases; C000606431:INPP5F protein, human; D000072181:Inositol Polyphosphate 5-Phosphatases; D016282:Aspartic Acid Endopeptidases; C460085:signal peptide peptidase