Transcriptomic analysis of XIST+ and XIST- hES cells. Homo sapiens

Purpose: Compare the transcriptome of homogeneous XIST+ and XIST- hES cell populations. Methods: We isolated homogeneous XIST+ and XIST- cell populations. The XIST+ cells correspond to cells with a XIST cloud and one ATRX pinpoint. The XIST- cells correspond to cells with no XIST cloud and one ATRX pinpoint. Results: We took advantage of the clonal pattern of X-chromosome inactivation in H9 cells and analyzed the data in an allelic manner. By comparing the RNA-Seq data with known H9 SNPs, we identified genomic positions which were relaxed from XCI in XIST- cells compared to XIST+ cells. Conclusions: Genic as well as unannotated transcripts are massively relaxed from XCI in H9 cells when XIST expression is lost, however, this reactivation is only partial and a large region around the centromere is protected from relaxation of silencing. Overall design: Total RNA (rRNA depleted) profiles of XIST+ and XIST- human embryonic stem cells