Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: HCFC1 and YY1 mediate recruitment of COMPASS and Integrator to initiate X chromosome inactivation
doi: 10.1101/2025.09.18.677040
Figure Lengend Snippet: Large mega-domain deletions on the X chromosome identify HCFC1 as a potential XCI activator. a , Targeting and differentiation strategies. Rnf12 +/- cells were transiently transfected with CRISRPR-Cas9 and gRNAs targeting different locations on the X chromosomes. Correctly targeted clones were differentiated for several days. b , X chromosome scheme depicting evolutionary strata 1, 2, 3, 4 and the pseudo-autosomal region (PAR) , . The locations of Xist and Rnf12 are depicted with a black and grey line, respectively, while the deleted Rnf12 allele on the 129 chromosome is also shown. The different deletions (ΔA to ΔK) are shown with different colors underneath. c , Relative Xist expression at day 8 of differentiation of WT, Rnf12 +/- and the different Rnf12 +/- cell lines with X chromosomal deletions, normalized to Rnf12 +/- . Average ± SD, n=2 to 5 biological replicates. A one-sided Welch’s t-test was used to test significant differences between Rnf12 +/- and WT or deletion cell lines. P-values were corrected for multiple testing with the Benjamini-Hochberg method. d , Zoom-in on a specific region of ΔE. The locations of different overlapping deletions (ΔE1, ΔE2, ΔE3) are shown with black lines; the smaller incremental deletions (ΔE2A, ΔE2B, ΔE3A, ΔE3B) are shown in green. The blue rectangle highlights the location of Hcfc1 and Irak1 . e , Expression heatmap of X-linked genes, sorted by genomic location and split by allele (129 or Cast) for 2 WT, 2 Rnf12 +/- , 1 ΔE2A, 2 ΔE2B, 2 ΔE3A, 2 ΔE3B and 2 ΔE clones. Notice the deleted genes per clone on the 129 alleles. f , Relative Xist expression at day 0 and day 8 of WT, Rnf12 +/- , ΔE and smaller ΔE deletion cell lines. Average expression ± SD; n=2 (WT, Rnf12 +/- and ΔE2A lines), n=4 (ΔE2B, ΔE3A and ΔE3B lines) and n=5 (ΔE lines) biological replicates. A one-sided Welch’s t-test was used to test significant differences per day of differentiation between Rnf12 +/- and WT or deletions cell lines. P-values were corrected for multiple testing with the Benjamini-Hochberg method. g , Volcano plot portraying gene expression changes between ΔE2B and Rnf12 +/- cells. Downregulated and upregulated genes in ΔE2B are shown in blue and red, respectively. Notice Xist is depicted on the left, as the most significant downregulated gene. h , Same as g but for ΔE3B vs Rnf12 +/- cells. i , Expression (TPM) of Hcfc1 (green), Irak1 (grey), Rnf12 (blue) and Xist (red) in ΔXic Cast ESCs from Pacini et al., 2021 . P-values were calculated between day 0 and 1 for Hcfc1 (green) and Irak1 (grey) using one-sided independent t-tests and corrected for multiple testing with the Benjamini-Hochberg method.
Article Snippet: The membrane was washed 3× with 1×TBST (0.02M Tris-HCl, 0.15M NaCl, 0.1% Tween-20, pH 7.6), incubated with the appropriate primary antibodies, HCFC1 Carboxy-terminal Antigen antibody (Cell signaling, 50708S, 1:1000), V5 antibody (Invitrogen, R96025, 1:5000), YY1 antibody (Santa Cruz, sc-7341, 1:200) and/or H3K4me3 antibody (Sigma-Aldrich, 05-1339, 1:1000).
Techniques: Transfection, Clone Assay, Expressing, Gene Expression