Sex-biased and parental allele-specific gene regulation by KDM6A [ChIP-seq]

KDM6A, which regulates gene expression by demethylation of the repressive histone mark H3K27me3, has a higher level in mammalian females than in males because the Kdm6a gene escapes X chromosome inactivation. Here, we report that maternal and paternal alleles of a number of genes throughout the genome are differentially regulated by KDM6A. Knockout of KDM6A in male and female embryonic stem cells derived from F1 hybrid mice results in downregulation of maternal alleles more frequently than paternal alleles. This parent-of-origin preference for regulation of gene expression by KDM6A was observed for subsets of maternally expressed non-imprinted and imprinted genes. By ATAC-seq downregulated genes showed a concomitant loss of chromatin accessibility on maternal but not on paternal alleles. Surprisingly, enrichment in H3K27me3 was observed on downregulated paternal but not maternal alleles. These results suggest parent-of-origin mechanisms of gene regulation by KDM6A, which may be histone demethylation-dependent and -independent. Overall design: H3K27me3 occupancy changes were analyzed in male ES cells following KDM6A CRISPR/cas9 knockout. Wild type controls were compared to exonic CRISPR Kdm6a KO cells.