The SWI/SNF protein ATRX co-regulates pseudoautosomal genes that have translocated to autosomes in the mouse genome

Pseudoautosomal regions (PAR1 and PAR2) in eutherians retain homologous regions between the X and Y chromosomes that play a critical role in the obligatory X-Y crossover during male meiosis. Genes that reside in the PAR1 are exceptional in that they are rich in repetitive sequences and undergo a very high rate of recombination. Remarkably, murine PAR1 homologs have translocated to various autosomes, reflecting the complex recombination history during the evolution of the mammalian X chromosome. We now report that the SNF2-type chromatin remodeling protein ATRX controls the expression of eutherians ancestral PAR1 genes that have translocated to autosomes in the mouse. In addition, we have identified two potentially novel mouse PAR1 orthologs. We propose that the ancestral PAR1 genes share a common epigenetic environment that allows ATRX to control their expression. At E13.5, n = 3 biological replicates of littermate-matched wt/ko pairs. RNA from 2 forebrains were pooled to generate enough RNA for each sample. At P0.5, n = 4 biological replicates of littermate-matched wt/ko pairs (for pair #2 there is one wt and 2 Atrx-null samples (2A & 2B) and we count this as 2 pairs).