spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif ARCHIVE ANNOUNCEMENT! spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kelly, W. G.
Right arrow Articles by Reinke, V.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Kelly, W. G.
Right arrow Articles by Reinke, V.
Development 129, 479-492 (2002)
© 2002 The Company of Biologists Limited

X-chromosome silencing in the germline of C. elegans

William G. Kelly1,*, Christine E. Schaner1, Abby F. Dernburg2, Min-Ho Lee3, Stuart K. Kim4, Anne M. Villeneuve4 and Valerie Reinke5,*

1 Biology Department, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
2 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, One Cyclotron Road MS-84-171 and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
3 Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
4 Departments of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305
5 Department of Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CN 06520, USA

*Authors for correspondence (e-mail: bkelly{at}biology.emory.edu and valerie.reinke{at}yale.edu)

Accepted 18 October 2001

Germline maintenance in the nematode C. elegans requires global repressive mechanisms that involve chromatin organization. During meiosis, the X chromosome in both sexes exhibits a striking reduction of histone modifications that correlate with transcriptional activation when compared with the genome as a whole. The histone modification spectrum on the X chromosome corresponds with a lack of transcriptional competence, as measured by reporter transgene arrays. The X chromosome in XO males is structurally analogous to the sex body in mammals, contains a histone modification associated with heterochromatin in other species and is inactivated throughout meiosis. The synapsed X chromosomes in hermaphrodites also appear to be silenced in early meiosis, but genes on the X chromosome are detectably expressed at later stages of oocyte meiosis. Silencing of the sex chromosome during early meiosis is a conserved feature throughout the nematode phylum, and is not limited to hermaphroditic species.

Key words: C. elegans, Germline, Silencing, X-inactivation, Histone modifications, Gametogenesis




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 ScienceHome page
Y. Fong, L. Bender, W. Wang, and S. Strome
Regulation of the Different Chromatin States of Autosomes and X Chromosomes in the Germ Line of C. elegans
Science, June 21, 2002; 296(5576): 2235 - 2238.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2002