The long and the short of it: RNA-directed chromatin asymmetry in mammalian X-chromosome inactivation - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

. 2009 Mar 4;583(5):857-64.

doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.02.004. Epub 2009 Feb 8.

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Review

The long and the short of it: RNA-directed chromatin asymmetry in mammalian X-chromosome inactivation

Chandrasekhar Kanduri et al. FEBS Lett. 2009.

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Abstract

Mammalian X-chromosome inactivation is controlled by a multilayered silencing pathway involving both short and long non-coding RNAs, which differentially recruit the epigenetic machinery to establish chromatin asymmetries. In response to developmentally regulated small RNAs, dicer, a key effector of RNA interference, locally silences Xist on the active X-chromosome and establishes the heterochromatin conformation along the silent X-chromosome. The 1.6 kb RepA RNA initiates silencing by targeting the PRC2 polycomb complex to the inactive X-chromosome. In addition, the nuclear microenvironment is implicated in the initiation and maintenance of X-chromosome asymmetries. Here we review new findings involving these various RNA species in terms of understanding Xist gene regulation and the establishment of X-chromosome inactivation.

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