TY - JOUR A1 - Chureau, Corinne A1 - Prissette, Marine A1 - Bourdet, Agnès A1 - Barbe, Valérie A1 - Cattolico, Laurence A1 - Jones, Louis A1 - Eggen, André A1 - Avner, Philip A1 - Duret, Laurent T1 - Comparative Sequence Analysis of the X-Inactivation Center Region in Mouse, Human, and Bovine Y1 - 2002/06/01 JF - Genome Research JO - Genome Research SP - 894 EP - 908 DO - 10.1101/gr.152902 VL - 12 IS - 6 UR - http://genome.cshlp.org/content/12/6/894.abstract N2 - We have sequenced to high levels of accuracy 714-kb and 233-kb regions of the mouse and bovine X-inactivation centers (Xic), respectively, centered on the Xist gene. This has provided the basis for a fully annotated comparative analysis of the mouse Xic with the 2.3-Mb orthologous region in human and has allowed a three-way species comparison of the core central region, including theXist gene. These comparisons have revealed conserved genes, both coding and noncoding, conserved CpG islands and, more surprisingly, conserved pseudogenes. The distribution of repeated elements, especially LINE repeats, in the mouse Xic region when compared to the rest of the genome does not support the hypothesis of a role for these repeat elements in the spreading of X inactivation. Interestingly, an asymmetric distribution of LINE elements on the two DNA strands was observed in the three species, not only within introns but also in intergenic regions. This feature is suggestive of important transcriptional activity within these intergenic regions. In silico prediction followed by experimental analysis has allowed four new genes, Cnbp2, Ftx, Jpx, and Ppnx, to be identified and novel, widespread, complex, and apparently noncoding transcriptional activity to be characterized in a region 5′ of Xist that was recently shown to attract histone modification early after the onset of X inactivation.[The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to the EMBL data library under accession nos. AJ421478, AJ421479, AJ421480, andAJ421481. Online supplemental data are available athttp://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/datasets/Xic2002/data.html andwww.genome.org.] ER -