Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-13-2019

Keywords

JGM

JAX Source

Nat Commun 2019 Nov 13; 10(1):5137

Volume

10

Issue

1

First Page

5137

Last Page

5137

ISSN

2041-1723

PMID

31723143

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12970-4

Abstract

RNA has been classically known to play central roles in biology, including maintaining telomeres, protein synthesis, and in sex chromosome compensation. While thousands of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been identified, attributing RNA-based roles to lncRNA loci requires assessing whether phenotype(s) could be due to DNA regulatory elements, transcription, or the lncRNA. Here, we use the conserved X chromosome lncRNA locus Firre, as a model to discriminate between DNA- and RNA-mediated effects in vivo. We demonstrate that (i) Firre mutant mice have cell-specific hematopoietic phenotypes, and (ii) upon exposure to lipopolysaccharide, mice overexpressing Firre exhibit increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and impaired survival. (iii) Deletion of Firre does not result in changes in local gene expression, but rather in changes on autosomes that can be rescued by expression of transgenic Firre RNA. Together, our results provide genetic evidence that the Firre locus produces a trans-acting lncRNA that has physiological roles in hematopoiesis.

Comments

This open access article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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