Turner James M A, Mahadevaiah Shantha K, Fernandez-Capetillo Oscar, Nussenzweig André, Xu Xiaoling, Deng Chu-Xia, Burgoyne Paul S
Division of Stem Cell Research and Developmental Genetics, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, The Ridgeway, Mill Hill, London NW7 1AA, UK.
Nat Genet. 2005 Jan;37(1):41-7. doi: 10.1038/ng1484. Epub 2004 Dec 5.
In Neurospora, DNA unpaired in meiosis both is silenced and induces silencing of all DNA homologous to it. This process, called meiotic silencing by unpaired DNA, is thought to protect the host genome from invasion by transposable elements. We now show that silencing of unpaired (unsynapsed) chromosome regions also takes place in the mouse during both male and female meiosis. The tumor suppressor protein BRCA1 is implicated in this silencing, mirroring its role in the meiotic silencing of the X and Y chromosomes in normal male meiosis. These findings impact on the interpretation of the relationship between synaptic errors and sterility in mammals and extend our understanding of the biology of Brca1.
在粗糙脉孢菌中，减数分裂时未配对的DNA既会被沉默，也会诱导与其同源的所有DNA发生沉默。这一过程被称为未配对DNA介导的减数分裂沉默，被认为是保护宿主基因组免受转座元件入侵。我们现在表明，在小鼠的雄性和雌性减数分裂过程中，未配对（未联会）染色体区域的沉默也会发生。肿瘤抑制蛋白BRCA1参与了这种沉默，这与它在正常雄性减数分裂中对X和Y染色体的减数分裂沉默所起的作用相似。这些发现影响了对哺乳动物中突触错误与不育之间关系的解释，并扩展了我们对Brca1生物学特性的理解。
