Meiotic sex chromosome inactivation

X chromosome inactivation is most commonly studied in the context of female mammalian development, where it performs an essential role in dosage compensation. However, another form of X-inactivation takes place in the male, during spermatogenesis, as germ cells enter meiosis. This second form of X-inactivation, called meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) has emerged as a novel paradigm for studying the epigenetic regulation of gene expression. New studies have revealed that MSCI is a special example of a more general mechanism called meiotic silencing of unsynapsed chromatin (MSUC), which silences chromosomes that fail to pair with their homologous partners and, in doing so, may protect against aneuploidy in subsequent generations. Furthermore, failure in MSCI is emerging as an important etiological factor in meiotic sterility.     

Meiotic sex chromosome inactivation in the marsupial Monodelphis domestica

In eutherian mammals, the X and Y chromosomes undergo meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI) during spermatogenesis in males. However, following fertilization, both the paternally (Xp) and maternally (Xm) inherited X chromosomes are active in the inner cell mass of the female blastocyst, and then random inactivation of one X chromosome occurs in each cell, leading to a mosaic pattern of X-chromosome activity in adult female tissues. In contrast, marsupial females show a nonrandom pattern of X chromosome activity, with repression of the Xp in all somatic tissues. Here, we show that MSCI also occurs during spermatogenesis in marsupials in a manner similar to, but more stable than that in eutherians. These findings support the suggestion that MSCI may have provided the basis for an early dosage compensation mechanism in mammals based solely on gametogenic events, and that random X-chromosome inactivation during embryogenesis may have evolved subsequently in eutherian mammals.     

Meiotic drive and sex chromosome cycling

Sex-linked meiotic drive is found in a broad variety of taxa, including insects, birds, and mammals. In populations of some species, we see four types of sex chromosomes segregating: normal and driving X chromosomes and susceptible and resistant Y chromosomes. A theoretical analysis shows that a stable four-chromosome equilibria is a more common outcome in these systems than previously recognized. Cycling of sex chromosome frequencies and associated changes in the sex ratio are other predicted outcomes. The absence of cycling in nature may be due to migration among populations.     

Human male meiotic sex chromosome inactivation

In mammalian male gametogenesis the sex chromosomes are distinctive in both gene activity and epigenetic strategy. At first meiotic prophase the heteromorphic X and Y chromosomes are placed in a separate chromatin domain called the XY body. In this process, X,Y chromatin becomes highly phosphorylated at S139 of H2AX leading to the repression of gonosomal genes, a process known as meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI), which has been studied best in mice. Post-meiotically this repression is largely maintained. Disturbance of MSCI in mice leads to harmful X,Y gene expression, eventuating in spermatocyte death and sperm heterogeneity. Sperm heterogeneity is a characteristic of the human male. For this reason we were interested in the efficiency of MSCI in human primary spermatocytes. We investigated MSCI in pachytene spermatocytes of seven probands: four infertile men and three fertile controls, using direct and indirect in situ methods. A considerable degree of variation in the degree of MSCI was detected, both between and within probands. Moreover, in post-meiotic stages this variation was observed as well, indicating survival of spermatocytes with incompletely inactivated sex chromosomes. Furthermore, we investigated the presence of H3K9me3 posttranslational modifications on the X and Y chromatin. Contrary to constitutive centromeric heterochromatin, this heterochromatin marker did not specifically accumulate on the XY body, with the exception of the heterochromatic part of the Y chromosome. This may reflect the lower degree of MSCI in man compared to mouse. These results point at relaxation of MSCI, which can be explained by genetic changes in sex chromosome composition during evolution and candidates as a mechanism behind human sperm heterogeneity.     

Evidence that meiotic sex chromosome inactivation is essential for male fertility

The mammalian X and Y chromosomes share little homology and are largely unsynapsed during normal meiosis. This asynapsis triggers inactivation of X- and Y-linked genes, or meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI). Whether MSCI is essential for male meiosis is unclear. Pachytene arrest and apoptosis is observed in mouse mutants in which MSCI fails, e.g., Brca1(-/-), H2afx(-/-), Sycp1(-/-), and Msh5(-/-). However, these also harbor defects in synapsis and/or recombination and as such may activate a putative pachytene checkpoint. Here we present evidence that MSCI failure is sufficient to cause pachytene arrest. XYY males exhibit Y-Y synapsis and Y chromosomal escape from MSCI without accompanying synapsis/recombination defects. We find that XYY males, like synapsis/recombination mutants, display pachytene arrest and that this can be circumvented by preventing Y-Y synapsis and associated Y gene expression. Pachytene expression of individual Y genes inserted as transgenes on autosomes shows that expression of the Zfy 1/2 paralogs in XY males is sufficient to phenocopy the pachytene arrest phenotype; insertion of Zfy 1/2 on the X chromosome where they are subject to MSCI prevents this response. Our findings show that MSCI is essential for male meiosis and, as such, provide insight into the differential severity of meiotic mutations' effects on male and female meiosis.     

Meiotic chromosome configurations in a triploidRhoeo

Meiosis in triploidRhoeo spathacea (2n=3x=18) is characterized by multivalents composed of up to 16 chromosomes as well as bivalents and univalents. Forty-nine types of configurations were present in 113 completely analyzed cells. Univalents were present in 91.15% of the cells, ranging 0–8, mean 2.21±0.14 per cell. Bivalents were seen in 76.11% and trivalents in 69.03% of the cells with means of 1.58±0.12 (1.12±0.13 chains, 0.46±0.07 rings) and 1.33±0.12 respectively, per cell. As the size of the configurations increases, their mean decreases. There were 7.47±0.18 two-arm and 2.62±0.14 three-arm associations per cell. No 4-arm associations were observed. The theory of segmental interchange is consistent with all these data. The mean number of countable chiasmata per cell was 12.7±0.16, or 0.71 per chromosome. Preferential pairing of complex homologues occurred.     

Meiotic chromosome synapsis in a haploid yeast

An extensive synaptonemal complex (SC) is found at pachytene in whole mount spread preparations of a haploid yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, strain. Whereas unsynapsed axial elements are present only in a few nuclei, in others non-homologous synapsis involves virtually the whole chromosome set. This suggests that homology is not an indispensable precondition for SC formation in yeast but that chromosomes engage in non-homologous synapsis if no homologous partner is available. Recent evidence that in the sporulation deficient yeast mutants rad50 and mer1 axial elements do form but remain unsynapsed in the majority of nuclei is discussed in the light of the above findings.by D. Schweizer     

Meiotic segregation of a homeologous chromosome pair

During meiosis, the alignment of homologous chromosomes facilitates their subsequent migration away from one another to opposite spindle poles at anaphase I. Recombination is part of the mechanism by which chromosomes identify their homologous partners, and serves to link the homologs in a way that, in some organisms, has been shown to promote proper attachment to the meiotic spindle. We have built a diploid strain that contains a pair of homeologous chromosomes V': one is derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and one originates from S. carlsbergensis. Sequence analysis reveals that these chromosomes share 71% sequence identity. The homeologs experience high levels of meiotic double-stranded breaks. Despite their relatedness and their competence to initiate recombination, the meiotic segregation behavior of the homeologous chromosomes suggests that, in most meioses, they are partitioned by a meiotic segregation system that has been shown previously to partition non-exchange chromosomes and pairs with no homology. Though the homeologous chromosomes show a degree of meiotic segregation fidelity similar to that of other non-exchange pairs, our data provide evidence that their limited sequence homology may provide some bias in meiotic partner choice.     

Meiotic chromosome condensation and pairing in Saccharomyces cerevisiae studied by chromosome painting

Non-isotopic high resolution in sity hybridization was applied to cytological preparations of sporulating yeast cells. Ribosomal DNA (rDNA) and chromosome V-specific recombinant lambda clones were used to tag individual chromosomes and chromosome subregions. This allowed the study of chromosome behaviour during early meiotic prophase. It was found that chromatin becomes condensed and homologous DNA sequences then appear to become aligned prior to synaptonemal complex formation.by E.R. Schmidt     

Meiotic chromosome pairing is promoted by telomere-led chromosome movements independent of bouquet formation

Chromosome pairing in meiotic prophase is a prerequisite for the high fidelity of chromosome segregation that haploidizes the genome prior to gamete formation. In the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as in most multicellular eukaryotes, homologous pairing at the cytological level reflects the contemporaneous search for homology at the molecular level, where DNA double-strand broken ends find and interact with templates for repair on homologous chromosomes. Synapsis (synaptonemal complex formation) stabilizes pairing and supports DNA repair. The bouquet stage, where telomeres have formed a transient single cluster early in meiotic prophase, and telomere-promoted rapid meiotic prophase chromosome movements (RPMs) are prominent temporal correlates of pairing and synapsis. The bouquet has long been thought to contribute to the kinetics of pairing, but the individual roles of bouquet and RPMs are difficult to assess because of common dependencies. For example, in budding yeast RPMs and bouquet both require the broadly conserved SUN protein Mps3 as well as Ndj1 and Csm4, which link telomeres to the cytoskeleton through the intact nuclear envelope. We find that mutants in these genes provide a graded series of RPM activity: wild-type>mps3-dCC>mps3-dAR>ndj1Δ>mps3-dNT = csm4Δ. Pairing rates are directly correlated with RPM activity even though only wild-type forms a bouquet, suggesting that RPMs promote homologous pairing directly while the bouquet plays at most a minor role in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A new collision trap assay demonstrates that RPMs generate homologous and heterologous chromosome collisions in or before the earliest stages of prophase, suggesting that RPMs contribute to pairing by stirring the nuclear contents to aid the recombination-mediated homology search.