title: 2-D structure of the A region of Xist RNA and its implication for PRC2 association.
abstract: In placental mammals, inactivation of one of the X chromosomes in female cells ensures sex chromosome dosage compensation. The 17 kb non-coding Xist RNA is crucial to this process and accumulates on the future inactive X chromosome. The most conserved Xist RNA region, the A region, contains eight or nine repeats separated by U-rich spacers. It is implicated in the recruitment of late inactivated X genes to the silencing compartment and likely in the recruitment of complex PRC2. Little is known about the structure of the A region and more generally about Xist RNA structure. Knowledge of its structure is restricted to an NMR study of a single A repeat element. Our study is the first experimental analysis of the structure of the entire A region in solution. By the use of chemical and enzymatic probes and FRET experiments, using oligonucleotides carrying fluorescent dyes, we resolved problems linked to sequence redundancies and established a 2-D structure for the A region that contains two long stem-loop structures each including four repeats. Interactions formed between repeats and between repeats and spacers stabilize these structures. Conservation of the spacer terminal sequences allows formation of such structures in all sequenced Xist RNAs. By combination of RNP affinity chromatography, immunoprecipitation assays, mass spectrometry, and Western blot analysis, we demonstrate that the A region can associate with components of the PRC2 complex in mouse ES cell nuclear extracts. Whilst a single four-repeat motif is able to associate with components of this complex, recruitment of Suz12 is clearly more efficient when the entire A region is present. Our data with their emphasis on the importance of inter-repeat pairing change fundamentally our conception of the 2-D structure of the A region of Xist RNA and support its possible implication in recruitment of the PRC2 complex.
authors.affiliation: Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, AREMS, Nancy Université, UMR 7214 CNRS-UHP 1, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maenner
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blaud
authors.forename: Laetitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fouillen
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Savoye
authors.forename: Virginie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Marchand
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dubois
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sanglier-Cianférani
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van Dorsselaer
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clerc
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Avner
authors.forename: Athanase
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Visvikis
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Branlant
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D041321:Chromosomes, Human, X / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010802:Phylogeny; D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding; D022661:RNA, Untranslated / Q000235:genetics*; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000235:genetics*; D049951:X Chromosome Inactivation / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D063146:Polycomb-Group Proteins; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding; D022661:RNA, Untranslated; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C077885:XIST non-coding RNA